Facebook zaps Bolsonaro trolls
Social media giant found networks used to spread disinformation
The social media giant Facebook suspended on Wednesday a network of accounts that were used to spread disinformation by employees of Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro and his sons, lawmaker Eduardo Bolsonaro and Sen. Flavio Bolsonaro. The company said there was no proof the politicians operated the accounts but that these used fake personas and “inauthentic behavior.”
The social media giant Facebook suspended on Wednesday a network of accounts that were used to spread disinformation online by employees of Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro and two of his sons.
Despite efforts to disguise who was behind the activity, the company said it found links to the staff of two Brazilian lawmakers, as well as the president and his sons, lawmaker Eduardo Bolsonaro and Sen. Flavio Bolsonaro.
Nathaniel Gleicher, Facebook’s head of cybersecurity policy, said there was no evidence the politicians themselves operated the accounts but the accounts were removed for using fake personas and other types of “coordinated inauthentic behaviour” which violated the company’s rules.
“What we can prove is that employees of those offices are engaged on our platforms in this type of behavior,” he told Reuters ahead of the announcement on the company’s blog.
Trump ally included Facebook said it has also suspended three other networks on Wednesday, including one it attributed to Roger Stone, a longtime friend and adviser of US President Donald Trump.
The Brazilian president’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment but Sen. Flavio Bolsonaro said his father’s government was elected with strong popular backing and has thousands of supporters on social media.
The allegations by Facebook add to a burgeoning political crisis in Brazil, where Bolsonaro’s sons and supporters have been accused of running a coordinated online campaign to smear the president’s opponents.
The accusations have spurred a congressional inquiry and a separate Supreme Court investigation into so-called fake news attacks on the country’s judiciary, which led to police raids in May on the homes and offices of Bolsonaro allies.
Gleicher said his team identified and suspended more than 80 accounts on Facebook and its photo-sharing site, Instagram, as part of the Brazilian network. The accounts amassed 1.8 million followers, he said, and some dated back to 2018.
Employees identified Researchers at the Atlantic Council’s Digital Forensic Research Lab, who spent a week analyzing the activity identified by Facebook, said they had found five current and former political staffers who registered and operated the accounts.
Some of those accounts posed as fake Brazilians and news outlets to spread “hyperpartisan views” supporting Bolsonaro and attacking his critics, said researcher Luiza Bandeira. Their targets included opposition lawmakers, former ministers and members of Brazil’s Supreme Court.
More recently, the accounts also amplified Bolsonaro’s claims that the risks of the coronavirus pandemic are exaggerated although it has killed more than 66,000 people in Brazil and Bolsonaro himself tested positive this week.
“We have known for a long time that when people disagree with Bolsonaro they are targeted by this machine that uses online disinformation to mock and discredit them,” Bandeira said. “So knowing now that part of these attacks are coming from people directly related to the Bolsonaro family, that explains a lot.”