Federal government did not decree the end of the Manaus Free Trade Zone, contrary to what the post says – 04/19/2023 – Market

Posts deceive when claiming that the federal government decreed the end of the Free Zone of Manaus because tax incentives would have ended, as Simone Tebet, Minister of Planning, said. Misinformers took a statement by the minister out of context. When she said, on April 4, in Brasilia, that “the issue of tax incentives was necessary for a while in Brazil, but it has exhausted itself, its effects have exhausted itself”, Tebet was referring to the development model based on tax benefits. Regarding the industrial hub in the Amazonian capital, she said that, as far as she knows, incentives should be protected.

“The information we have is that, in principle, these two benefits [Zona Franca e Simples Nacional] will be protected. Therefore, they will continue to have a differentiation with regard to the tax issue. But, again, it is a decision to be made by the National Congress that will be accepted by President Lula’s government”, she said during a hearing in the working group on tax reform in the Chamber of Deputies. Check it out, it can be watched on the Chamber’s YouTube channel.

Contacted by the report, the Ministry of Planning reaffirmed that Tebet did not defend the end of the Amazonian industrial center and that the government did not decree its end. “On the contrary, it placed the Free Zone and Super Simples as benefits to be maintained.”

Misleading, for Comprova, is content removed from the original context and used in another so that its meaning undergoes changes; that uses inaccurate data or that induces an interpretation different from the author’s intention; content that is confusing, with or without the deliberate intent to cause harm.

Reach

Comprova investigates suspicious content with greater reach on social networks. On Instagram, two posts totaled 4,400 interactions. On TikTok, the post had 3,800 likes and 1,200 shares.

How do we check

A search on Google for terms like “Simone Tebet” and “exhausted”, the result brought reports about her participation in the event at the Chamber. From there, the team found the full video of the event on the agency’s website and was able to verify the minister’s statements.

Even knowing that it was misleading content, he contacted the press office of the Ministry of Planning to check information, which, as mentioned above, denied the allegations.

What the person responsible for the publication says

Misleading posts use a print of the title published on the Portal Conservador Amazonas website. Although the headline reads “Lula Government decrees the end of the Manaus Free Trade Zone – tax incentives ‘have been exhausted’, says Minister Simone Tebet”, the text informs that the minister said that the benefits for the Free Trade Zone will continue. Sought, the site did not respond until the publication of this text. Comprova tried to contact, via Instagram, the profile that signs the text and one of those whose post went viral, but there was no response until the publication of this verification. With the profile that published the misleading post on TikTok, the report was unable to contact because comments are disabled and on the social network there is only private exchange of messages between accounts that follow each other.

What can we learn from this check

Apparently, the post brings bombastic information, the government would be ending the Manaus Free Trade Zone, created in 1967. Therefore, we must, from the outset, ask ourselves why we do not read about the subject in any vehicle of the traditional press. And we should already have the alert on. A next step is to search for the content, to see if no professional media actually published about the news. At this stage, we already realized that it was disinformation content, since the most recent reports citing Tebet and the Manaus Free Trade Zone say exactly the opposite of the posts, as already informed above. Furthermore, there is no mention of this matter in official government channels.

why do we investigate

Comprova monitors suspicious content published on social networks and messaging apps about public policies and elections at the federal level and opens investigations for those publications that have achieved greater reach and engagement. You can also suggest checks via WhatsApp +55 11 97045-4984. Suggestions and questions related to questionable content can also be sent to Sheet via WhatsApp 11 99486-0293.

Other checks on the topic

The same content was investigated by Jornal do Commercio. And Tebet has already been the target of other uninformative posts checked by Comprova, such as the verification that showed that she promised to reduce taxes for the poorest, contrary to what the video suggested and the one that proved to be false that the minister let the doctor be humiliated in the Covid CPI .

The investigation of this content was carried out by Folha and Estadão and published on April 13 by Projeto Comprova, a coalition that brings together 41 vehicles to check viral content. It was verified by O Popular, Plural Curitiba, Poder360, AFP, SBT and SBT News.