Analysis: As Brazil cracks down on fake news, Bolsonaro’s new move is straight out of Trump’s playbook
The battle between fake news and truth is raging in Brazil, and while the Bolsonaro administration’s approach is reminiscent of the Trump one, there’s an important twist. Both of these nations are in the midst of a global campaign against fake news. Yet in their approach in the country, both countries are pursuing a very different strategy. In addition, the Bolsonaro administration’s new tactic is very reminiscent of something that President Donald Trump is using against online misinformation and criticism online.
What is a Bolsonaro campaign against disinformation exactly?
For a while now, President Jair Bolsonaro has been using his Twitter account to attack mainstream media outlets that are critical of his government. He has tweeted about these outlets in a very personal way, calling them “inaccurate” and “disrespectful.” And just like many other countries around the world, Bolsonaro uses his platform to spread this message of distrust and distrust of the press as a whole.
This is not the Bolsonaro way. This has nothing to do with the Bolsonaro way. This is what the Bolsonaro administration is doing. Bolsonaro has a different model; he is more in line with the Trump administration approach than the Brazil model.
It is not uncommon for Brazilian governments and their allies and partners to use Twitter, Facebook or Instagram to communicate the government’s position to the public.
Bolsonaro, however, is not using Twitter to communicate a position on the country’s government. His tweet about the media is simply him responding to the media he sees as incorrect, and he is not communicating in terms of the government’s position on anything.
On the campaign trail, Bolsonaro always talks about his government as a collective and “B4” (in his vernacular, “B4”). Many times, however, he is talking as though the government is a team and he is the coach.
In November, for example, Bolsonaro said, “If you are in government, you’re for your government—not the media. You’re all the same. You all follow the same orders.”
It’s clear he is
