Page 7 - aruba-today DEC 14 2020

A7
WORLD NEWS Monday 14 deceMber 2020

Swift backlash for Brazil students targeting misinformation

By DAVID BILLER nalism is important.
Associated Press Jornal da Cidade claimed
RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) — reputational and financial
Before dawn on Dec. 1, damages and sued Twitter,
Leonardo de Carvalho demanding the platform
Leal prepared to leave his turn over data associated
family behind in the Brazil- with the Sleeping Giants
ian city of Ponta Grossa, Brazil account that could
in Parana state. His moth- identify its users. Twitter last
er overwhelmed him with week provided the court
goodbyes and gifted him with the account's I.P. ad-
a bracelet she said had dresses, according to a
brought her luck. He fid- person with knowledge
dled with it on his wrist the of the case, who isn't au-
entire ride to the airport, thorized to speak publicly.
unsure when he might see Twitter said in an emailed
her again. statement that it "vigorous-
"Maybe I was blaming my- ly fought this case through
self a bit, for leaving so several different appeals"
many people vulnerable," and will continue to defend
he said in a video interview free speech and privacy
with The Associated Press, rights.
with tears welling as he re- Jornal da Cidade's editor
called his departure. "But Leonardo de Carvalho Leal, right, and Mayara Stelle, who administer the Twitter account Sleeping José Tolentino declined an
Giants Brazil, use their computers in Sao Paulo, Brazil, Friday, Dec. 11, 2020.
what I did was right." Associated Press interview request, and re-
Leal and girlfriend Mayara ferred the AP to his lawyers.
Stelle -- both 22-year-old and using the Sleeping Gi- the judiciary against those after another. A top target Lawyer Simone Custódio
law students -- this year cre- ants Brazil account, and who train fire on conserva- was Jornal da Cidade On- declined an interview re-
ated a Twitter account with checked the names they tive media outlets, inter- line, a conservative web- quest, didn't answer ques-
the goal of calling out Bra- provided against their gov- est groups and Bolsonaro's site based in southern Bra- tions sent by email about
zilian websites for spread- ernment-issued identifica- administration, according zil. The site's content has re- the case, instead saying
ing "hate speech and Fake tion cards. to Taís Gasparian, a part- peatedly been debunked they will await the right
News," and torpedoing "Those threats that say, ner at law firm Rodrigues by fact-checking organiza- time to comment publicly
those sites' advertising reve- 'I'm going to kill you,' or, Barbosa, Mac Dowell de tions, and a preliminary re- in observance of their cli-
nue. They garnered 410,000 'I'm offering 100,000 reais Figueiredo, Gasparian who port shows "it is one of the ent's best interests.
followers, more than the ($20,000) for the head of has worked with media and big disseminators of false "The cowardly attacks
number of residents in their the profile's owner,' will now free speech for decades. news in our country," said against Jornal da Cidade
city. be directed at Mayara and Sleeping Giants Brazil fol- lawmaker Lídice da Mata, Online hide people, busi-
They also mustered a legion Leo," Stelle said from a city lowed the playbook of its the rapporteur of Congress' nesses and entities that
of enemies. Vitriol poured outside Sao Paulo. "This is US predecessor, which af- ongoing investigation into certainly act in their desired
in, directed toward their a decision to protect our ter Donald Trump's 2016 misinformation. attempt to install left-wing
account, Sleeping Giants families and control expo- presidential victory alerted Scores of advertisers in radicalism in Brazil or other
Brazil. Believing their identi- sure to show we're com- companies to the fact their Brazil -- among them Dell, even more sordid interests,"
ties are soon to be revealed mon people, like anyone ads were appearing on McDonald's, Facebook read an editorial published
after a ruling against Twit- else who can have an idea. websites including Breit- and Domino's Pizza — re- Dec. 4. The site has denied
ter, they expect they will And that idea can be bril- bart News, a platform that sponded publicly to alerts spreading misinformation
be personally targeted, for liant, can change things." critics have repeatedly from Sleeping Giants Brazil and hasn't incited any vio-
lawsuits or worse. This year, Brazil has been accused of running rac- and likeminded Twitter us- lence against Leal and
Fear their families would awash in misinformation ist, xenophobic and sexist ers about their ads appear- Stelle.
be harassed because they about the pandemic, content. Companies' ads ing on Jornal da Cidade, When Leal and Stelle suc-
had often accessed the egged on by dubious were often automatically saying they would remove cessfully petitioned Dell to
account at their parents' claims from President Jair placed through Google, them because of the site's remove its ads from Jornal
homes, they say, is why Bolsonaro. It marks the con- and they decamped en content or already had. da Cidade, Tolentino said
they left and made their tinuation of a digital battle masse upon learning of risk State-run Bank of Brazil did Sleeping Giants' followers
identities known to The As- in Latin America's biggest to their brands. the same, prompting a re- were "all frustrated, spite-
sociated Press and Folha country. The number of Sleeping buke from Bolsonaro's son ful, criminal and envious
de S.Paulo, Brazil's biggest Pursuit of Sleeping Giants Giants Brazil's followers sur- and his communications leftists," and that his site re-
newspaper. The AP ob- Brazil is part of a growing passed that of the US han- secretary, who said on Twit- ceives more than one mil-
served them accessing trend to instrumentalize dle as it toppled one ad ter that independent jour- lion visits daily. q