Fake News Dodges Punishments Due to Difficulty of Its Identification

01/16/2018 - 10h43

A state congressman from Paraná is in charge of drug trafficking in the state. A group of Cubans formed a cell that was going to "take up arms" during Lula's trial in Porto Alegre.

Hundreds of members of the Landless Workers' Movement (MST) destroyed private property in Bahia, leading to millions of reais in damages. Convicts at the Papuda penitentiary complex in Brasília threatened to rape politicians who were accused of corruption.

All of the above statements, which received thousands of likes and comments on social media and messaging apps, are false. They are recent examples of fake news that could tarnish candidates in the 2018 elections.

The Superior Electoral Court (TSE) and the Federal Police are worried, so they have decided to set up a task force that will debate the issue. Police chief Demetrius Gonzaga de Oliveira, a specialist in cyber crimes, wants harsher laws.

The biggest concern is the speed with which these rumors spread on the internet and the support they get from influential people who have thousands of followers, not to mention the difficulties that candidates will face in order to defend themselves in a timely manner.

One case that demonstrates the reach that false facts have took place in November, when the Landless Workers' Movement (MST) was accused in a video of unknown authorship of having destroyed a farm in Correntina, Bahia. The video included footage of people bringing down electricity towers.

Comedian Danilo Gentili, who has 16.1 million followers on one social network, shared the video "MST attacks and destroys energy center in Bahia" and demanded that "Brazilian journalism" position itself on the matter.

Congressman Marco Feliciano (PSC-SP), who has 504,000 followers, held the MST responsible for the attacks, claiming in a video that "we can already say that terrorist attacks are taking place in Brazil".

It soon became clear that those responsible for the depredation that took place were actually a group of rural dwellers who had disagreed with the irrigation project of an agriculture company.

Marcelo Calçado, the civil police chief who is investigating the attack, told Folha that MST participation in the matter has been ruled out. "People currently write about whatever happens to be on their mind, even if it hasn't taken place".

Translated by THOMAS MATHEWSON

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	Polícia Civil/ANPr/Polícia Civil/ANPr
	Police chief Demetrius Gonzaga de Oliveira is specialist in cyber crimes