The electoral battle of Brazil is waged on Facebook WhatsApp

The electoral battle of Brazil is waged on Facebook WhatsApp https://www.eresviral.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/La-batalla-electoral-de-Brasil-se-libra-sobre-WhatsApp-de-Facebook

The electoral battle of Brazil is waged on Facebook WhatsApp







BRASILIA (Reuters) - Facebook Inc's (FB.OThe WhatsApp messenger service became the first line of Brazil's bitter presidential campaign on Friday, as leader Jair Bolsonaro angrily denied accusations that he had encouraged misinformation campaigns on the platform. 











Fernando Haddad, presidential candidate of the Left Workers Party (PT) of Brazil, attends a rally in the center of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, October 19, 2018. REUTERS / Ricardo Moraes





On Thursday, the newspaper Folha de S.Paulo had reported that supporters of the far-right candidate had financed massive attacks of messages against his leftist rival Fernando Haddad. 

Bolsonaro said in an online video that he had no knowledge of such activity and asked the supporters to do so to be stopped. 

Haddad and his allies have urged an investigation and have threatened a series of legal actions, as the race that Bolsonaro legislator will win for a landslide on October 28 reaches its final stretch. 

Later on Friday, Brazil's main electoral tribunal, the TSE, approved the opening of an investigation of the case. 









Slideshow (2 images)




The recriminations highlight the enormous political role of WhatsApp in the elections in Brazil, where its more than 120 million users compete with the reach of Facebook's main platform, in a country with a population of almost 210 million. 

The messaging application allows groups of hundreds of users to exchange encrypted texts, photos and videos beyond the reach of authorities or independent fact verifiers, which allows the rapid dissemination of erroneous information without any way to trace its source or full scope. The digital marketing firms had apparently taken advantage of that opacity to circulate unregistered political propaganda, according to the Folha report. 

WhatsApp said on Friday it was "taking immediate legal steps to prevent companies from sending mass messages," including cease and desist letters to the companies in question. 

The previous day, WhatsApp said it had banned hundreds of thousands of accounts during the election period, as spam detection technology detected accounts involved in automated "bots" behavior.  

However, new questions emerged on Friday about the effectiveness and consequences of this technology. 

The presidential candidate's main son, Senator-elect Flavio Bolsonaro, revealed that he had been blocked from using the service, which required an explanation from the company.  

"There is no limit to the persecution!", Wrote Flavio Bolsonaro on Twitter, adding that the ban had already been lifted. 

WhatsApp confirmed that it had blocked Flavio Bolsonaro's account for "spam behavior" in recent days, for reasons unrelated to the Folha report. 

OFFICIAL COMPLAINT 

The Haddad Workers' Party has filed an official complaint with the electoral courts, asking them to investigate allegations of illicit financing for misleading propaganda. 

It is not clear what effect, if any, the accusations will have on opinion polls. The latest Datafolha survey, taken before the story was published, showed that Bolsonaro had 59 percent of voter support, compared to 41 percent for Haddad.  

Bolsonaro has run as a candidate against the establishment despite representing the state of Rio de Janeiro as a federal congressman for almost three decades. With a career not contaminated by major corruption investigations, he has gathered voters fed up with years of graft scandals and economic mismanagement while the Workers' Party was in power.  

WhatsApp's accusations have encouraged Haddad, who said his party has witnesses who say that Bolsonaro asked business leaders for money to pay for the large number of messages, which he described as a request for undeclared contributions to the campaign.  

The Democratic Labor Party (PDT), which supports Haddad, filed an election lawsuit Friday calling on the courts to annul the presidential election due to what he called an "abuse of economic power." 





Report of Jake Spring and Ricardo Brito in Brasilia; Additional reports by Gabriel Stargardter in Rio de Janeiro, Eduardo Simoes and Tais Haupt in Sao Paulo, and Joe Menn in San Francisco; Edited by Brad Haynes and Rosalba O'Brien





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