Janones admits to bluffing and manipulating information in Lula’s campaign

The controversy involving the strategies used by deputy André Janones (Avante-MG) on social media during the 2022 elections, in support of the candidacy of Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT) and in opposition to Jair Bolsonaro (PL), does not go away, in his statements, of mere “information manipulation” and “bluff”.

In preparation for the launch of his book “Cultural Janonism: the use of social networks and the battle for democracy in Brazil”, scheduled for November 20, the deputy once again denied that he had disseminated false news during the electoral period, which could be questioned in the electoral court.

To the Power 360, Janones declared this Saturday (28): “I manipulate information. Before giving the information, I play on words to make the voter understand that I am saying something, but I am saying something else.” As one of the parliamentarians with the largest number of followers on social media, he played a prominent role in Lula’s campaign and was even considered for the position of communications minister. The deputy admitted to the news portal that his tactics are “debatable” and susceptible to “ethical questioning”.

Regarding the accusation of spreading fake news, Janones argues that he just “bluffed”, and that the bluff does not constitute news. In his book, he explains how he used verbal tricks to get voters to associate aspects against Bolsonaro and in favor of his main opponent, Lula. He believes that his practices came up against the ethical limits of an electoral campaign, and that they consisted of bluffs, disclosing true information and other manipulated information to harm the former president.

In one of the chapters of the book, Janones narrates his attempt to intimidate Bolsonaro, insinuating that he had compromising information taken from the cell phone of former minister Gustavo Bebianno, who died in 2020. Even admitting that the content found did not incriminate the former president, he insinuated the opposite on social media, suggesting that Bolsonaro was afraid that he would give documents to Lula on the eve of the last debate between the two candidates on TV.