The use of social networks for political purposes has performed the trial on the coup plot in the (Supreme Court) from different perspectives, ranging from surcharge to Brazilian products announced by the president of, to house arrest of ().
Specialists heard by Sheet They evaluate that digital platforms played a central role in an attempt to blow, acting as an engine of the plot that should still remain influenced in favor of the politician – including in the congress debate on amnesty and feature reduction – although Bolsonaro is arrested and forbidden to use networks.
The former president was for attempted coup and four other crimes. At the age of 70, he may no longer be able to dispute elections, since he was applied ineligibility of eight years from the end of the sentence – this calculation ,.
Social networks have been a fundamental theme since the digital militias inquiry, which gave rise to the investigation into the coup plan.
Started in 2021 by the Supreme and, it focuses on a criminal organization that would act in production, publication, financing and use of disinformation against democracy.
O subject He permeates other surveys, such as the fake news, opened in 2019 to investigate messages directed to the Supreme and his magistrates.
Another investigation in which, according to STF Minister Alexandre de Moraes, the Modus Operandi of digital militias is noticeable is the one that ascertains a possible attempt to obstruct justice imputed to Bolsonaro and one of his children, the federal deputy (PL-SP).
In this inquiry, the magistrate said he recognized the repetition of the willful use of digital platforms. This is what would justify AA Jair Bolsonaro. A. Then he was breached and led to the former president on August 4.
The subject of the networks also appeared directly in the criminal plot criminal action. According to the Attorney General, Paulo Gonet, the “typical strategy of digital militias of continuous dissemination of false information, with personal attacks on their targets” was used in.
The intersection with politics still appears in the external scenario. The networks were cited directly by Trump in which he announced the surcharge to Brazilian products.
At the time, he stated that US social media platforms suffered “hundreds of secret and illegal censorship orders,” “threatening them with fines of millions of dollars and expulsion of the Brazilian social media market.”
The offensive against Brazil occurs in a context in which the government () proposed to present one. Before that, the digital platforms.
For Liriam Sponholz, communication professor and researcher at INCT-DSI (National Institute of Science and Technology in Disputes and Informational Sovereigns), the attempted coup was built on social networks.
“Political factors were essential, but social networks too,” he says. For her, the platforms alone did not create the political context, but influenced the dimension and contributed to normalizing extremist discourses.
“Digital platforms put the machine to run. They were the engine of this climb [que levou à tentativa de golpe]. They were much more than a speaker, because they not only disclosed the content. “
According to Leticia Cesarino, professor of digital anthropology at UFSC (Federal University of Santa Catarina), the movement in social networks that led on January 8 came in a growing from 2021.
She points out that this period is precisely the one identified by Gonet as the moment when the actions that would lead to scammers were intensified.
According to Cesarino, digital media monitoring research has identified that conspiracy theories against the ballot box replaced other in force-being linked to the Covid-19 pandemic, which left the petista apt to compete in the 2022 elections.
“At this point, we saw in our data the wave of pandemic base conspiracy theories – still quite vivid in early 2021 – changing. It began to lower and, concomitantly, began to climb the electoral conspiracy. They were the same groups there. There was indeed this exchange, and it was very visible.”
For Fábio Malini, coordinator of LABIC (Laboratory of Data Science) at UFES (Federal University of Espírito Santo), social networks were important for the attempt to blow by producing in real time an imaginary of chaos that would justify the need for military intervention.
“The multiple images in different campaigns, channels and profiles served how this blow being narrated live. They said ‘Brazil is in total disorder, the police are not able to curb, politicians are not able to stop the situation. Therefore, the thing is dergungolate.'”
For Malini, the digital base should remain lit even after the former president was convicted. He says, however, that precautionary measures applied to the politician brought impact. “One of the characteristics of Bolsonaro’s house arrest was also generating a reduction in this activity and informative intensity.”
According to Marcelo Alves, professor of communication at PUC-Rio and director of methodology at the Democracy Institute in Check, social networks were important in an attempt to scoup by spreading content and the possibility of PIX financing and product sales.
According to him, the tendency is that the use of networks in favor of the former president will continue, now focusing on one.
