Facebook's WhatsApp was flooded with fake news in Brazil's elections

Facebook's WhatsApp was flooded with fake news in Brazil's elections https://www.eresviral.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/WhatsApp-de-Facebook-se-inundó-de-noticias-falsas-en-las-elecciones-de-Brasil

Facebook's WhatsApp was flooded with fake news in Brazil's elections







BRASILIA (Reuters) - Facebook's popular message service, WhatsApp, has become a political battlefield in Brazil's most polarized elections in recent decades, raising concern that it is distorting the debate beyond of the public eye. 











The silhouettes of the mobile users are seen next to a screen projection of the WhatsApp logo in this illustration taken on March 28, 2018. REUTERS / Dado Ruvic / Illustration





Facebook has promoted efforts to put an end to misinformation on its main platform before the presidential run-off on October 28 between right wing Jair Bolsonaro and leftist Fernando Haddad. But WhatsApp has been flooded with falsehoods and conspiracy theories. 

Haddad now alleges that the businessmen who support Bolsonaro have been paying to bomb the voters with deceptive propaganda in violation of the electoral law, which his rival denies. 

WHAT IS INFLUENTIAL WHATSAPP? 

WhatsApp has more than 120 million users in Brazil, a country of almost 210 million, which rivals the reach of Facebook's main platform in one of the company's largest global markets. 

The courier service has become one of the main ways in which Brazilians keep in touch with friends, colleagues and family members. 

The first round vote of the October 7 elections highlighted the main role that social media now plays in Brazilian politics. 

Bolsonaro, a seven-party congressman from a small party, had little access to funds from public campaigns or television advertising, but his popular campaign and his exaggerated presence on social networks helped him win 46 percent of the vote, almost without a second round 

Survey firm Datafolha found that two-thirds of Brazilian voters use WhatsApp. Bolsonaro's supporters were more likely to follow the political news on the platform: 61 percent said they did, compared to 38 percent of Haddad's voters. 

WHAT ARE THE RISKS? 

The end-to-end encryption of WhatsApp allows groups of hundreds of users to exchange texts, photos and videos beyond the reach of electoral authorities, verifiers of independent events or even the platform itself. 

False rumors, manipulated photos, decontextualized videos and audio traps have become campaign munitions, and they become viral on the platform without any way of controlling their origin or full scope. 

Many of the fakes portray Haddad as a communist whose Workers' Party would turn Brazil into another Cuba, convert the children to homosexuality and plan to manipulate voting machines. 

Others have spread the conspiracy theory that Bolsonaro had presented his almost fatal stabbing at a rally last month, which brought him out of the campaign and presidential debates.  

WhatsApp has tried to discourage the tsunami of falsehoods by limiting the number of recipients to whom a message can be forwarded. The company has also publicly publicized how to detect fake news and has blocked hundreds of thousands of accounts during the campaign, with the technology detecting automated "bot" behavior. 

WHAT IS THE LAST SCANDAL? 

Haddad accuses Bolsonaro of not only benefiting from erroneous information on WhatsApp, but of encouraging supporters to fund massive messages through the platform. That would be tantamount to requesting illegal campaign contributions in what they call an "abuse of economic power" that undermines the election. 

On Thursday, the newspaper Folha de S.Paulo reported that supporters of Bolsonaro had paid digital marketing companies up to 12 million reais ($ 3.26 million) each to spread tens of thousands of ads for attacks. Haddad said his party had witnesses who heard Bolsonaro encourage business leaders to fund the efforts. 

Bolsonaro has denied any knowledge of such a scheme and has asked the supporters to do so to stop. 

WhatsApp said it takes allegations seriously and is "taking immediate legal steps to prevent companies from sending mass messages," including cease and desist letters to the companies in question.  

WHAT ARE THE CONSEQUENCES? 

Brazil's main electoral tribunal opened an investigation on Friday into accusations, which experts quickly called "WhatsAppgate." 

Haddad's allies argue that the scandal should invalidate the election. However, the investigation is unlikely to derail the Bolsonaro campaign with just one week before the vote and an 18-point advantage over Haddad in the latest opinion polls. 

Even so, the accusations have tensed an already angry and polarized electorate and are likely to hover over the next government. 

The way in which the marketing companies obtained the cell phone numbers used for the WhatsApp messages may have violated Brazil's data privacy laws, according to Fabio Malini, a technology professor at Espirito Santo federal university. 

Brazilian lawmakers and judges have repeatedly tried in recent years to invade the privacy that WhatsApp offers, creating headaches for Facebook executives, who are often called to account. The latest electoral scandal could intensify these pressures. 





Anthony Boadle report; Edited by Brad Haynes and Bill Trott





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