Brazil’s block of Elon Musk’s X platform is not about free speech, but about sovereignty and foreign entities respecting Brazil’s rule of law. The only political element is on Musk’s side, in his open support for Brazilian fascists. The billionaire turned far-right influencer’s meddling and incitement is rightly being viewed as a coup attempt. – […]
By Brett Heinz. Originally published at CEPR. Meta is the king of the social media world. Not only is the company’s flagship product, Facebook, the world’s largest social networking platform, but two of its other properties — WhatsApp and Instagram — are also in the top five. With this popularity has come significant controversy, especially […]
With the 2022 election only weeks away, YouTube, owned by US tech giant Google, has been found to be favouring pro-Bolsonaro videos in its recommendations to users in a damning new study. The videos include conspiracy theories and attacks on the electoral process. Folha de São Paulo reports that the YouTube algorithm has found to […]
There was more to South African billionaire Elon Musk’s already bizarre meeting with Brazilian neofascist president Jair Bolsonaro than met the eye. “We will coup whoever we want! Deal with it.” Elon Musk on Bolivia, 24/7/2020 By Nathalia Urban A day after being implicated in a sexual harassment scandal with a Space X worker, the […]
How would Brazilian handling of the Covid-19 pandemic have been different if Bolsonaro had never come to power? April 2018: Facing international outcry, denunciation at the UN, and the threat of economic retaliation from its principal trading partner, China, Brazil’s Armed Forces have abandoned their efforts to exclude former president Lula da Silva from the […]
In September 2019, Brazilian Minister for Foreign Affairs Ernesto Araújo met US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo in Washington D.C. and the pair announced a new U.S.-Brazil bilateral agreement to open up the Amazon Rainforest to private sector development. Araújo called the agreement “…the Holy Grail of Brazil’s foreign policy, at least for the private sector”. Behind […]
The Alcântara Accord Would Sacrifice Brazil’s Sovereignty, Development, and the Rights of its Quilombo Residents. By Sean T. Mitchell On August 20, Brazil’s House Committee on Foreign Relations and National Defense approved the “Technology Safeguards Accord” that would allow the United States to use the Alcântara Launch Center in Maranhão, bringing the controversial agreement closer […]
US linguist, philosopher, cognitive scientist, historian, political activist, and social critic, Noam Chomsky, has recently spoken out on the role of tech giants Google and Facebook in the manipulation of democratic elections, drawing parallels between recent outcomes in Germany and in Brazil. Chomsky described the patterns of manipulation and fraud around Brazil’s 2018 election, in particular the use […]
Admiral Craig Faller announces an unprecedented joint military operation with Brazil to the US Senate Armed Services Committee. What does it mean for national sovereignty? By Marcelo Zero Brazil’s participation in US SOUTHCOM is part of a broader process that began with the coup of 2016. The aggression against our sovereignty is much more serious […]
As Mark Zuckerberg jumps through hoops to show he can limit the damage to democracy caused by fake news on Facebook, his WhatsApp platform has been used to convince a large segment of the Brazilian electorate that out of control gays are about to force homosexuality on their children unless they elect an actual fascist. […]