Brazil’s far-right holds House hearing on Sleeping Giants

Photo: Bruno Spada/CD

Far-right lawmakers on Wednesday held a House public hearing on the Brazilian chapter of Sleeping Giants, an activist organization that pressures companies to remove advertisements from conservative news media. In Brazil, the activists have particularly targeted the media group Jovem Pan, one of the key players in the country’s far-right media ecosystem and often described as Brazil’s answer to Fox News.

Local representatives of Sleeping Giants were invited to attend by far-right Congresswoman Bia Kicis, a staunch supporter of former President Jair Bolsonaro. They did not show up. Ms. Kicis said they did not bother to respond to the invitation.

José Frederico Cimino Manssur, a lawyer for Jovem Pan, attended the hearing and argued that Sleeping Giants “coerces” advertisers on their social media channels to “attack” the media group.

Sleeping Giants claims to have successfully demonetized several far-right media outlets in Brazil. In December 2022, after the presidential election, the group launched the “Demonetize Jovem Pan” campaign, which aimed to avoid a coup attempt similar to the January 6, 2021 riots in the U.S. Several of the media group’s radio pundits alleged, without proof, that the elections had been rigged. A few weeks later, a few thousand pro-Bolsonaro vandals actually broke into and ransacked the buildings housing all three branches of government in Brasília.

In November, before Sleeping Giants’ campaign, Google had already decided to suspend the monetization of Jovem Pan’s channels on YouTube for violating its “disinformation policies” regarding the elections.

Advertisers who have publicly responded to Sleeping Giants by claiming they have stopped running ads on Jovem Pan include major foreign brands such as Coca-Cola, Epson, Hyundai, Kingston, Mentos, Mexican automaker Kavak, Nivea, Panasonic, giant Chinese retailer Shein, Suzuki, Texaco, and Trivago.

A story published by The Intercept Brasil claims that Jovem Pan lost BRL 837,000 (USD 172,000) in advertising revenue in a single month from two contracts alone after Toyota and Caoa Chery canceled contracts. Back in June, the group estimated that a total of 98 brands had stopped advertising on Jovem Pan.

In addition to calling on advertisers to stop investing in far-right outlets, Sleeping Giants also promotes left-wing policies and is friendly toward Supreme Court justices. Earlier this year, the group lobbied in favor of the so-called “Fake News Bill,” a proposal backed by the Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva administration.

Jovem Pan filed a criminal case against Sleeping Giants in Brazil, but it was dismissed by Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes for lack of evidence. A separate civil suit is pending.