Pro-Lula influencers repeat Bolsonarist tactics – 5/9/2023 – Politics

A group of supporters of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT) has repeated some of the tactics of Bolsonarist digital militants, such as publishing distorted or false information, as well as attacks on journalists.

Some of these influencers were even received by Lula himself at a breakfast at the Planalto Palace.

In addition to defending the government on the networks, they use a counterattack tactic in times of weariness, using, for example, lies against the family of the predecessor Jair Bolsonaro (PL) to divert the focus.

One of the targets of fake news from Lula’s supporters is former first lady Michelle Bolsonaro, who became president of PL Mulher and has been appointed as a candidate for public office. With every news of benefits and privileges involving Lula, it is against her that the load of attacks is turned.

When to Sheet revealed that the government had bought a R$65,000 sofa and a R$42,000 bed for the Alvorada Palace, this pro-Lula digital militia spread the version that the Bolsonaro family had disappeared with the furniture from the residence without evidence. official.

The pro-government influencer Ronny Teles, who has almost 1 million subscribers on YouTube and participated in breakfast with Lula and first lady Janja no Planalto, released content on the networks distorting a statement by the former first lady.

She had published a video refuting the story about the disappearance of furniture from the Palácio da Alvorada, indicating that she used her own goods to furnish the historic building and that she later took them away.

The influencer, however, suggested on Twitter that Michelle had recognized that she had appropriated furniture from public property – something the former first lady did not say in the video.

“Michelle says that furniture designed by Oscar and Anna Niemeyer taken from Alvorada was hers and criticizes Lula”, wrote the influencer.

A Sheet influencer denies that he has disclosed fake news.

“What we do on Twitter is a rougher, more satirical approach. This video is not actually disinformation or false information. It’s a criticism, it’s a satire on the fact that there is information that the furniture she carried are not from her house.”

“So when we said ‘she admits on video that she carried furniture by Oscar Niemeyer’, what we are doing is a joke, a provocation”, justified the influencer, who is a programmer and biomedical.

Ronny Teles claims that he does not receive any privileges or transfers from the government. He claims to be a “kind of social movement, as if it were a CUT [Central Única dos Trabalhadores] from the internet”. And he acknowledges that he has contact with the Presidency’s Communications Secretariat and that he receives material from the government.

The Secom (Secretary of Social Communication) of the Presidency said in a note that it has no institutional relationship with influencers and that it does not interfere in the content published by them either.

“Since the beginning of this administration, three breakfasts have already been held at the Planalto Palace, events that brought together the most diverse press professionals, including Folha de S.Paulo, for example. The objective is to broaden the debate on the government’s actions and programs and, thus, establish a more transparent communication with Brazilian society”, states the text.

The influencer Thiago Reis also attacked Michelle Bolsonaro with fake news, to counter the criticism suffered by the first lady Janja for going to a luxury store in Lisbon, at a time when the government intended to tax international remittances of up to US$ 50, measure that would affect the lower class.

“Michelle showing off buying BRL 20,000 shoes with public money in Dubai, the press: cri cri cri… Janja buying a tie for Lula with her own money, the press: SCANDAL, BUYING IN A LUXURY STORE”, wrote the influencer .

Michelle Bolsonaro was part of the presidential delegation to Dubai and even toured the Middle East, but there were no accusations of using public money to buy shoes.

The influencer, who has 367,000 followers on Twitter and operates a YouTube channel with 1.2 million followers. Thiago dos Reis also uses most of his posts to attack the press and what he calls “jornalixos”.

Many pro-Lula influencers also frequently stir up conspiracy theories regarding the stab against Bolsonaro during the 2018 election campaign.

“Asking does not offend: after the vaccination card is falsified, someone doubts that it was faked”, wrote a pro-Lula influencer on the networks. “Bolsonaro’s advisors arrested for the fraud of vaccination data were in Juiz de Fora on the day of the fake. The coup started there”, wrote another.

The fanciful thesis of the “fake”, which was thickened by the Brasil 247 website, also aligned with the PT, has already been defended by Minister Paulo Pimenta, from Secom.

In an interview with Sheet, in January, he relativized and said he does not question the stabbing of Jair Bolsonaro. “The ‘fakeada’ is not the stabbing, it’s the story created around the episode,” he said at the time.

Another important influencer is João Antônio Marques, who presents himself as a journalist and businessman on social networks and has a photo on his profile next to Lula. He has more than 40,000 followers, but the one that gives him the most repercussions is a YouTube page called Click Politics, which he manages.

The channel has 655,000 subscribers and usually publishes videos about the week’s political events with a vision aligned with the government’s.

After the fall of Minister Gonçalves Dias, worn out at the GSI by the dissemination of the images of January 8, the influencer recorded a video in which he blames, among others, the press.

“What certainty do we have on April 24, 2023? The certainty we have is that General Gonçalves Dias, former GSI commander is innocent, that General Gonçalves Dias in the Lula government was boycotted, they used the worst journalists to overthrow someone who was not in league with Bolsonaristas on that fateful day,” he said, as well as other Lula supporters, who began to openly attack the CNN Brasil journalist who had access to the videos.

The influencer does not spread false information, but he has fame with videos that always bring a supposed “bomb” against the Bolsonarist side.

Marques makes it clear in his comments that he maintains a close relationship with the government and important people in the PT.

In a recording published on Sunday (30th), for example, he says that he had a meeting with the president of the PT, Gleisi Hoffmann (PT-PR), and another with a “technical team” from the Secretariat of Communication of the Executive.

In addition, there are parliamentarians and politicians linked to the PT who perform better in the networks and who play an important role in defending the Lula administration. One of them is federal deputy André Janones (Avante-MG), who was once a pre-candidate for president, but withdrew to support Lula.

With a combative profile, he tends to give harsh answers and has been criticized, including by PT members, for resorting to distorted and sensationalist news about his opponents.