Pro-Lula profiles reach millions with fake news about the economy

Summary of this report:

• Four gossip profiles that together add up to approximately 50 million followers on social networks spread fake news about the reduction of social inequality in the Lula government.
• The accounts (Shocked, I pinned, PopTime It is UpdateCharts) omitted that the IBGE data that pointed to economic improvement in the country referred to 2022, when Lula had not yet taken office.
• A People’s Gazette found more fake news, in addition to publications with a strong partisan content in the four profiles.
• All accounts maintain or until recently maintained a contract with an agency run by supporters of the current president.
• The government has been betting on strengthening relationships with influencers to improve popularity and advance in agendas of interest.

On May 11, four profiles on social networks, which together have more than 50 million followers, spread fake news about the reduction of social inequality in the country with the aim of increasing the popularity of President Lula (PT).

In common between the accounts (I shocked, I pinned, PopTime It is UpdateCharts), all maintain a pro-government tone and are against Lula’s political opponents amid dozens of daily posts about gossip and entertainment. In several of the publications with partisan content, even the photos and texts used are repeated between the profiles.

“HISTORY: For the 1st time in 10 years, inequality in Brazil DROP to the LOWEST LEVEL, with the changes applied by the Lula government”, says the publication of the PopTime. Similarly, the profile of I shocked posted: “NOW: For the first time in a decade, inequality in Brazil has dropped to the lowest level, with the aid of R$600 from the Lula government and the improvement of the job market”.

The other profiles repeated the model, highlighting the official photo of Lula that appeared in the electronic ballot box in last year’s elections, alongside images of poor families or the Brazilian flag. O I shocked he even released a link to a journalistic article that would be his source for the post.

The reduction in inequality in recent years is true and was announced by the IBGE last week. The data, however, has to do with the year 2022, that is, before the Lula government started. Profiles omitted the year in all posts, creating a false narrative that the current government would have merits in such a significant reduction in economic inequality.

Even with complaints from thousands of users to the platforms pointing out the untruthfulness of the content, the posts were kept for several hours until they were deleted by the page administrators themselves. The profile of I shocked even received a check from the community of Twitter users – a resource called “Community Notes”.

The correction of information takes place when a large number of users of the platform point out that certain content of a post is false or contains misleading information. Since then, under the publication of the I shocked
the following note appears:

“According to the IBGE, the lowest level of inequality since the beginning of the historical series occurred in 2022. At the time, Lula was not the president. Experts point out that the cause for the drop in inequality was the creation of the Brazil Aid [programa de renda instituído durante o governo de Jair
Bolsonaro]. This benefit was not created by the Lula government”.

One of the sources mentioned by users to correct misinformation was precisely the article mentioned by I shocked as being the source of the fake news disclosed. The report brought correct data, which were manipulated by the gossip profile.

Profiles managed and managed by Lula supporters bet on disinformation and partisan tone to increase the government’s popularity

Another point in common among the accounts disseminating fake news is that three of the four are managed by Mynd8, a company that has the singer Preta Gil, a supporter of Lula, as a partner-owner. O I shocked is the only profile that is not on the agency’s list of accounts, but was part of the group until December 2021.

already the Digital Banking, the agency’s nucleus focused on entertainment profiles (such as Alfinetei, Fofoquei, Tricotei and Gina Indelicada) is commanded by Murilo Henare, another PT supporter, who last year personally met Lula and Rosângela Silva, Janja, to greet him them for the election. In the electoral campaign, accounts on the social networks that make up the Digital Banking they started an open pro-Lula line in their publications, which was maintained after the start of the PT government.

O I pinned, for example, published on Monday (15) a video in which a driver appears celebrating the price of gasoline and linking the supposed price drop to Lula. The description: “Truck driver celebrates the low price of gasoline, asks the attendant to smash the tank and thanks Lula”. In real numbers, however, the price of common gasoline accumulates an increase of 12.2% in Brazil between January and April of this year compared to the same period last year, according to data from the May edition of the Panorama Veloe de Indicadores de Mobilidade Urbana, carried out in partnership with the Economic Research Institute Foundation (Fipe). The government recently announced a reduction in fuel prices. The new values, however, came into effect on May 17, two days after the publication of the I pinned.

already the PopTime was one of the first to spread the fake news that Bolsonaro was a Satanist during last year’s election period. Recently, the profile was accused of homophobia for referring to make-up artist Agustin Fernandez, a personal friend of former first lady Michelle Bolsonaro, as a “gay pet”. The profile, which is led by homosexual people, even published a retraction note implying that the offense was only due to the fact that the makeup artist had a divergent political view of the group.

O Shocked, on the other hand, posted this Sunday (14) a video in which a young man approaches Senator Sergio Moro (União-PR) with offenses. The publication bears the following caption: “Young man approaches former partial judge Sergio Moro and asks what it is like to be a thief judge and receives a pat from the senator”.

This Friday (19), Lula retweeted a profile post that dealt with an alleged drop in fuel prices, without mentioning the place, date or indicating the source of the information. Until the publication of this article, no updated research on prices by the National Agency of Petroleum, Natural Gas and Biofuels had been published.

Owner of the main entertainment profile received privileged information from Janja during the election campaign

O I shocked, entertainment profile that currently has the largest number of followers on social networks (almost 27 million adding Twitter, Instagram and Tiktok), belongs to Raphael Sousa, an influencer who is close to the first lady Rosângela Silva, Janja. After the election results last year, he received an invitation from her to climb into the official sound car of Lula’s team and follow the PT’s victory speech. The president’s wife, who since the election period has tended to work closely with influencers to support the government, even sent exclusive content to her profile during the electoral dispute.

With the dissemination, on social networks, of news with a clear pro-Lula editorial bias, the owner of the I shocked contributed a lot to the PT campaign. During the electoral period, the account was always among those with the greatest impact on electoral issues.

In an interview with flow podcast last year, Sousa acknowledged that the profile’s performance helped to elect the current president and stated that all employees of the I shocked were pro-Lula, but that the support work for the PT had to do with the fact that the influencer was against Bolsonaro. Despite this, the owner of the profile became closer to the president after the start of the new term and maintains the government’s defense crusade on the internet at any cost.

Janja promises closer ties with pro-Lula influencers, who accelerate the production of fake news

Under the organization of the first lady, in early February there was a meeting at the Planalto Palace between Lula and digital influencers who campaigned for the PT on their channels in the 2022 elections. was instrumental in his election. “We wouldn’t have won the elections if it weren’t for the voluntary work of influencers on the networks. And you have a very big job for us to continue fighting the factory of lies, ”he said.

The event drew criticism from other influencers on the left, who complained that they openly campaigned for Lula, especially in the second round of elections, and yet they were left out of the event. When responding to the criticism, the first lady suggested that the government’s approach to influencers would be permanent during her term. “It’s the first of many,” she said.

As reported by the Folha de S. Paulo published on the last 10th, part of the group that met with Lula has been dedicated to the dissemination of false news, especially in times of greater weariness of the current government to divert the focus of criticism. According to the article, the majority targets of fake news are family members of former president Jair Bolsonaro, with emphasis on Michelle Bolsonaro.

To the newspaper, one of the influencers who recently disseminated pro-government fake news acknowledged that the information conveyed by him was false, but claimed that it was not misinformation, but “a joke, a satire”. Detail: the central theme of the event with influencers organized by Janja was precisely the “fight against fake news”.