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More websites with the Bolsonaro name are bought by opponents

Despite being extremely active on social media, President Jair Bolsonaro and three of his politician sons do not own internet domains in their names. When trying to access www.jairbolsonaro.com.br and its variants, users land on pages that do not work. Most of them were bought by opponents following the lack of payment of the BRL 40 (USD 7) annual domain fee.

In late August, Justice Minister Anderson Torres called for an investigation into the website www.bolsonaro.com.br, which displayed satirical and critical content against the president — ​​including comparisons with Adolf Hitler and the devil. The domain had been bought by a businessman from the southern city of Curitiba who rejects the president. 

The Brazilian Report found that those involved are already being called in for hearings by the Federal Police.

This Wednesday, the website with the name of Senator Flávio Bolsonaro became available for sale, but the process was postponed until next month because there were ten interested buyers. At this stage, the provider only sells the domain name when there is just one interested party. If this doesn’t happen for three months, the domain goes up for auction, with bids starting at BRL 50.

This happened with the bolsonaro.com.br domain, which ended up being sold for over BRL 20,000 after a series of bids. This only happens when the original owner fails to pay the annuity for more than nine months.

Other websites, such as those with the name of First Lady Michelle Bolsonaro and Congressman Eduardo Bolsonaro, also portray critical content. The first one shows a photo of former president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, the incumbent’s electoral opponent, and the second a post that directs to Lula’s Twitter page. The post features a screenshot of a photo of the former president on the beach liked by Eduardo, and captioned “Even Bolsonaro’s son likes it.”

Carlos Bolsonaro’s page was bought by a supporter in August. The page displays a message that the site has been recovered and wants to be donated back to the Rio de Janeiro city councilor. There is a QR Code for Carlos to contact the owner, but this has not yet been done.

“So far Carlos hasn’t contacted me, can you believe it? He must be pretty busy with other things. I even met Eduardo Bolsonaro a few days ago and asked him to speak with Carlos, but so far, Carlos has not given me the data to transfer the domain,” the website’s current owner, Rafael Patrick, told The Brazilian Report.

A specialist in buying and reselling domains, Mr. Patrick will not reveal how much he paid for the website, but says it was “pretty expensive.”

Currently, the Bolsonaro family’s only official website is the address verdadesdebolsonaro.com.br, registered under the name of the president’s party, the Liberal Party, and which mainly contains news criticizing Lula.

Amanda Audi

An award-winning journalist, Gustavo has extensive experience covering Brazilian politics and international affairs. He has been featured across Brazilian and French media outlets and founded The Brazilian Report in 2017. He holds a master’s degree in Political Science and Latin American studies from Panthéon-Sorbonne University in Paris.

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