“This campaign showed that political communication is completely vulnerable, especially on WhatsApp because it’s not monitorable,” said Pablo Ortellado, a University of São Paulo professor who runs GPOPAI, a research group that studies public policies for information access. Within 48 hours, the rumor-checking website E-Farsas (“E-Hoax”) said it had been watched more than 3 million times. “It’s a part of the gay kit, it’s Haddad’s invention,” says the video’s narrator at one point. The minute-long video accuses Workers’ Party candidate Fernando Haddad, who lost Sunday’s election by 6 percentage points, of planning to distribute baby bottles with penis-shaped teats. “Look what the Workers’ Party is putting in crèches,” read the caption. Three days before the most polarized election in the history of Brazil’s young democracy, a video making controversial claims about one of the presidential candidates appeared on Facebook. Reopen When Only 1.5 Percent of Your Country Has Been Vaccinated Why Did the Olympic Skateboarders Fall So Much? Aren’t They Supposed to Be Good?
The Grimmest Lesson of the Massive Facebook Leak Future Tense is a partnership of Slate, New America, and Arizona State University that examines emerging technologies, public policy, and society.įolks, We Gotta Start Farming Different Crops
