2 days before the 1st round, the president of the TSE receives international guests at the court headquarters for a series of lectures on the elections
2 days before the 1st round of municipal elections, the president of the TSE (Superior Electoral Court), Cármen Lúcia, once again criticized the spread of misinformation and fake news on social media. For the minister, the consumption of false information by voters is a phenomenon of what she defined as “digital halter”.
Cármen relates this problem to the abundance of information on platforms and the speed at which they are made available – which, according to the minister, can lead to a lack of critical attention on the part of users who read and listen to the opinions they are exposed to.
“We think we saw it, we think we thought it, but someone thought it for us. And due to the volume, the speed, the virality, it left us unable to choose freely, even choose votes freely, choose candidates freely. We have now created, in Brazil, the digital halter. Someone puts something on our cell phone, on our computer, that misinforms us and sends us to the same place.”he stated.
The statements were made during the opening of a series of lectures on elections and the challenges of the digital age. The meetings started this Friday (Oct 4) and will continue until Sunday (Oct 6), the day of the 1st round.
Cármen also defended the regulation of networks, an issue that has been on the radar of Congress and the STF for some time. She says that, although the movement to impose new standards on the functioning of platforms in Brazil is seen as possible “censorship” by the respective companies, this “not true”.
“These machines have been trying to capture freedom of expression, which is a democratic achievement of humanity, stating that any regulation would be a way of censoring free expression. This is also a lie, it is fake news, because there is a manipulation of freedoms through this abuse of misinformation”he said.
The minister’s criticisms are not new. On the day of her inauguration as president of the TSE, in June of this year, she showed signs that she would continue to combat disinformation as her predecessor, Alexandre de Moraes, did. On that date, she cited a “tyrannical outrage from social media against the integrity of democracy”.
In the same vein, this Friday (Oct 4), Cármen said that “the algorithm has an owner, has interests and doesn’t care much about others, except for the one who dominates it”.
The TSE has also been working to contain misinformation on the networks that could affect the election. In February, still under the command of Moraes, the court approved a series of resolutions that should govern the 2024 elections – including to hold platforms responsible in the event of fake news.
The minister also made considerations regarding the use of technology. He said that, despite the negative potential, digital advances can also help society. However, he stated that Brazil, with a population of more than 200 million inhabitants, is a “preferred target” of those who benefit financially from “machine abuse”.
“We are a preferential target for those who gain from all the resources, through the abuse of machines, and for this reason they also make us a preferential target for crazy algorithms, the irresponsible ones, and for this very reason they are interested in what their owners want”he stated.
In addition to Cármen Lúcia, the ambassador of Ghana, Abena Busia – a country that will have elections in December – and the ambassadors of Uruguay and Chile, Guillermo Valles and Sebastián Depolo, also spoke at the meeting.
On the day of the 1st round, October 6, guests will be taken to Valparaíso de Goiás (GO), a city close to Brasília, to visit a voting station. They will then visit an electoral registry to monitor the transmission of votes.
#Cármen #criticizes #digital #halt #election #defends #regulation