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In the morning of this Wednesday (25), Facebook officials announced the removal of the social network of 196 pages and 87 profiles of a political nature, mainly related to the right. The list of users contacted was not disclosed by the company, but several of the relevant pages were related to Movimento Brasil Livre (MBL). The group of right-wing activists played an important role in the protests due to the dismissal of former president Dilma Rousseff (PT) in 2016.
In a statement released today, Facebook states that deleting the content is "part of our effort" to prevent abuse ", and that the company acted after" rigorous investigation. "The deleted pages and profiles would be" part of a coordinated network concealed by the use of fake accounts on Facebook, and would hide from people the nature and origin of their content, with the aim of generating divisions and spreading false information. "[19659002] After the trial, MBL has launched a campaign against the measure on a number of social networks – including Facebook itself and WhatsApp, which also belongs to American society.
"It's a coordinated action. wrote one of the coordinators of the movement in a message to BBC News Brazil by WhatsApp. The reference is to the British writer George Orwell (1903-1950). In the book "1984", Orwell describes a totalitarian society in which citizens are controlled by a mixture of propaganda, historical revisionism, vigilance and censorship.
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The top of the movement began to explore ways to respond to what he sees as a Facebook attack. Politicians sympathizing with the group at the National Congress were fired to reject the measure and the group is studying the possibility of suing Facebook, in addition to considering protests. At the same time, a lawyer from the Republic in Goiás, Ailton Benedito, asked the company for the list of pages and profiles removed.
The MBL summit also took a safety step today: the group's national coordinators began using the telegram, Russian source messaging application considered an alternative to the popular WhatsApp. Does this one belong to Facebook? "I do not trust (in WhatsApp)," said a coordinator.
In the political world, Facebook's measure was celebrated by representatives of the left. The candidate of the PSOL to the Presidency of the Republic, Guilherme Boulos, clbadified the MBL as "criminal network of slander and false news ". "Now we have to investigate who funded and funded this clbad," he wrote on Twitter. Also via Twitter, Senator Humberto Costa (PT-PE) said that the MBL "was intercepted by Facebook for maintaining a network of fake pages and accounts for the purpose of spreading lies."
Gleicher, identified as the leader in cybersecurity of the company. "We only act on pages and profiles that have directly violated our rules, but we will continue to warn them of this type of abuse and others, and to remove any additional content identified as infringing the rules. "
MBL coordinators, Pedro D & # 39; Eyrot, said that Facebook promotes "a crusade" against the group. "What we have now, it's a foreign company that ingests in Brazilian politics, under the pretext of trying to protect the (false news) elections," he says. "From the moment they start to act politically, the conversation (with the company) is another," he says.
In March of this year, the O Globo newspaper published a report on the alleged link of the MBL with the page Political Skepticism, which, on this occasion, revealed the position of a Rio de Janeiro detachment connecting the Councilor Marielle Franco (PSOL) murdered to drug trafficking in Rio de Janeiro.
The telegram notifications show the entry of the alderman Fernando Holliday (DEM-SP) and Renan Santos, both leaders of the MBL
What is the reaction of MBL against Facebook?
The group is planning a demonstration against Facebook in the coming days. He should also file lawsuits against the company – the argument is that Facebook would have violated Article 14 of the Consumer Protection Code, as some of the removed pages had money applied to increase (increase visibility) their publications. 19659002] Throughout Wednesday, the group lobbied right-wing MPs to denounce the so-called "censorship" of Facebook – MP Jerônimo Goergen (PP-RS) even declared that he would study the possibility of collecting Signatures of his colleagues, with the aim of establishing a Parliamentary Inquiry Commission (CPI) in the Chamber of Deputies
"I believe that the best environment for these clarifications is in Congress, with the following: installation of an ICC, a company of the size and scope of Facebook can influence the decision-making of voters, "said the deputy.
At another time, the Attorney General of Goiás Ailton Benedito asked the social network to submit within 48 hours the list of pages removed and a rationale for the withdrawal of each.Ailton said Ailton said the request is to obtain data for another ongoing investigation, which seeks to determine if Facebook "imposes discriminatory censorship on the Brazilian user."
According to Ailton, who is the current leader of the MPF in Goiás, the goal is to protect "the constitutional right to liberty of information and opinion. "
" The fact of being a private company does not exclude from the obligation to provide this information. it should conform to the Civil Internet Framework. Internet is a service of social and public nature, "says the prosecutor.
Which pages were deleted?
Wednesday morning, Facebook took pages related to air to MBL cells in São José dos Campos (SP) and Taubaté (SP) He also removed pages of activists such as Renato Battista and Thomaz Henrique Barbosa.Another page removed was that of Movimento Brasil 200, a campaign of entrepreneurs for the controlled market freedom by Flávio Rocha, owner of the Riachuelo chain of stores Until mid-July, Rocha was a PRB presidential candidate, and had the support of MBL
On Twitter, Rocha said that the exclusion of the page was "unacceptable" and "violence." "It was only at the time of the military dictatorship that such arbitrariness occurred. is produced, "he writes.
Pages maintained by supporters of presidential candidate Jair Bolsonaro (PSL)) but no official profiles related to the captain of the reservation
This is not the first time that MBL has complained about having its content deleted by Facebook. In early July, the social network twice dropped a popular page of political memes, the Brazilian Corruption Memes (CBM) – the page featured humorous content, ideologically badociated with the right, and most of its directors came from members of the MBL. The page had more than a million followers.
* Rafael Barifouse of BBC News Brazil in Sao Paulo
