Musk has made Twitter a right-wing safe space in Brazil

[dalton99a]

An article from last week:

https://restofworld.org/2023/musk-twitter-right-wing-safe-space-brazil/

Musk has made Twitter a right-wing safe space in Brazil
Despite claiming a “shadow ban,” Bolsonaro supporters flocked to Twitter on the promise of Musk’s takeover, say experts.
By Charlotte Peet
2 January 2023

For months, Brazil’s far-right has questioned the results of the election that gave Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva another presidential term. Since Elon Musk took over Twitter, Brazilians and international observers alike have worried that cutbacks in moderation would add to the ranks of the country’s far-right.

Eight experts from digital rights organizations and universities in Brazil and the United States told Rest of World they have heard anecdotal evidence of right-wing accounts purportedly seeing increases in followers as Lula prepares to take office on January 1. Artur Pericles, an associate research scholar at Yale Law School, and formerly the head of research and freedom of expression at InternetLab in São Paulo, believes that Musk’s arrival at Twitter may have acted as a dog whistle for the right. “[The increase in right-wing followings] might just be people taking a cue from Musk,” Pericles told Rest of World. “That now Musk is in charge, things will be better for them.”

Rest of World compiled and analyzed the growth over the second half of 2022 of 40 of some of Brazil’s most prominent Twitter handles in politics and media. These accounts were categorized as either right-wing, left-wing, or establishment center-left. In order to build a representative list, Rest of World consulted eight Brazilian statisticians and data experts while choosing, categorizing, and analyzing the prominent accounts. While this is not a comprehensive dataset, experts believe that for some of the most important handles in Brazilian politics and media, this list does suggest Musk’s acquisition of Twitter had a boosting effect for right-wing followings versus left-wing and liberal accounts. ...



According to Cesarino, the Brazilian elections and Musk’s takeover were two important contributing factors that worked in tandem to help grow the followings of right-wing accounts. “Bolsonaro supporters are very dependent on the internet for their electoral campaigns,” she said. “Right-wing Brazilians don’t often have much visibility on more conventional Brazilian media channels, such as Globo, so they depend on these social media platforms to speak to their audiences.”

Looking towards the future, the potential threat to Brazil’s democratic institutions by the rise of a right-wing presence on Twitter worries Michele Prado, an independent researcher on the rise of the far-right in Brazil. “Elon Musk has rehabilitated profiles of highly harmful extremists,” she told Rest of World. “This legitimizes extremist content and ... in the short term, provides content that further radicalizes people on the extreme right — people who are joining demonstrations [in front of army barracks], calling for a military coup to break with the democratic order.”

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A cartoon from 2017: