In a testimony given this Tuesday (11) to the Fake News CPMI in the Senate, a former employee of a mass mailing agency for WhatsApp lied and insulted Folha reporter Patrícia Campos Mello.
Hans River do Rio Nascimento worked for Yacows, a company specializing in digital marketing, during the 2018 election campaign. Rui Falcão (PT-SP) summoned him to give testimony in the mixed parliamentary commission of inquiry that investigates the dissemination of fake news in the election.
In December of that year, a Folha report, based on documents from the Labor Court and Hans' reports, showed that a network of companies, including Yacows, resorted to the fraudulent use of the name and CPF of older adults to register cell phone chips. The companies used these registrations to send lots of messages to benefit politicians.
Folha spoke several times at the time to Hans, who was also the author of the labor action. In the first conversations, which started on November 19 and were always recorded, he said he did not know which campaigns used the fraud, but reaffirmed the contents of the case file and answered questions asked by the report.
He changed his mind on the 25th after making a deal with his former employer. The lawsuit recorded this on the 27th. "I thought better of it; I am asking you to remove everything I have said so far; don't count on me anymore," he said in a text message. Three days earlier, Folha had contacted Yacows to request clarification.
This Tuesday, he gave false information to the CPI and insulted Patrícia Campos Mello, one of the authors of the report. Deputy Eduardo Bolsonaro (PSL-SP), son of President Jair Bolsonaro, took advantage of Hans' speech to make insinuations against the Folha reporter, both in Congress and on his social networks.
Translated by Kiratiana Freelon