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Facebook closed Jair Bolsonaro's "hate office": suspended a network of 88 accounts from his inner circle that harassed opponents

2020-07-12T01:00:28.313Z


They are personal profiles and pages, also from Instagram. They violated the rules of conduct, they explain.


07/11/2020 - 12:27

  • Clarín.com
  • Technology

Facebook suspended 88 personal accounts and pages of the so-called "hate office" of Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, in a gesture that was read as a reaction to the boycott of advertisers that big brands applied to Mark Zuckerberg's company.

The rationale: "violation of the rules of conduct".

It is an offensive against a sector of the Bolsonaro government, which is managed with a strategy of harassment against opponents , a modality that was even investigated by the Brazilian Superior Electoral Tribunal.

The suspension also includes Instagram accounts , and Brazil was not the only country in which Facebook took these measures: the United States, Canada, Ecuador and Ukraine as well.

A total of 402 accounts were suspended , after an audit that Facebook commissioned the Digital Forensic Laboratory of the Atlantic Council study center.

The case became known because the newspaper El País of Spain published an article in which they point out Tércio Arnaud Tomaz , who went from being Bolsonaro's parliamentary secretary in the Brazilian Chamber of Deputies to special adviser to the presidency.

Facebook "punished" the work of Tomaz , who runs an account dedicated to "hate" against opponents, @bolsonaronewss.

There he was targeting various ministers who, after his resignation, rivaled Bolsonaro and also declaratory opponents of the Brazilian president: from Luiz Henrique Mandetta, of Health; Sergio Moro, of Justice; and Carlos Alberto Santos Cruz, former Secretary of Government, up to governors of different states of Brazil such as San Pablo, Juan Doria and Rio de Janeiro, Wilson Witzel.

Facebook closed "hate" accounts in Brazil: opponents instigate. (AFP - AP)

Whatsapp messages are also at the center of the controversy: although Facebook did not comment on this point, the highest authority of Justice of Brazil investigates the sending of mass messages to spread Bolsonaro propaganda, in addition to destroying the reputation of opponents . And there were also sanctions.

There is a blog that associates me with Nazism and shows me beheaded: nobody talks about suspending those pages.

Jair Bolsonaro

Thus, the "toxic content" was in check, which is precisely what brands like Unilever, Adidas, Coca Cola, HP and other giants had been demanding from Mark Zuckerberg, since the murder of George Floyd and the large number of messages of hate that spread through social networks that are owned by Facebook.

Bolsonaro's reaction: "The left boasts a moralist"

Jair Bolsonaro tested positive for coronavirus this week. (AFP)

Brazil's President Jair Bolsonaro was not indifferent to Facebook's move. Incarcerated in his official residence since he tested positive for coronavirus, he repudiated the sanction during the weekly transmission that he makes every week from, precisely, Facebook.

“We see that Facebook suspended pages around the world. In Brazil, it was up to those who are on my side, who sympathize with me. The left boasts a moralist, but look here, a blog that associates me with Nazism. Bolsonaro beheaded. Nobody talks about suspending these pages ”, he complained.

On WhatsApp, accounts linked to the Workers' Party (PT) were suspended for sending mass messages, something that is considered illegal.

A “pilot test” of Facebook, which goes for more

Facebook tries to win back the support of the big brands. (AP)

The boycott of the big brands to Facebook raised a lot of dust in the public debate in the United States. And not only in the techie world , but also in the political world.

It happens that at the end of May the idea of ​​suspending ads on Facebook began to circulate as a rejection of the lack of measures that Mark Zuckerberg's social network was taking against hate speech.

And finally Adidas, Starbucks, Ford, Coca Cola and 500 other big firms joined, listed after the slogan #StopHateForProfit.

Tomaz, precisely, is targeted in Brazil for being the head of that "hate office" of the Brazilian government.

A pilot test for the package of actions that Facebook would be preparing to unlock the conflict: start closing hate accounts and, despite Zuckerberg's challenging speech, recover the ads of the big players in the global market.

PJB

Source: clarin

All tech articles on 2020-07-12

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