Podcast

Explaining Brazil #75: WhatsApp-induced fires

Throughout 2018, we at The Brazilian Report have written numerous articles on the power of social media in Brazil. Especially WhatsApp.

Everyone in Brazil is on WhatsApp. Here, it works as a social network, with users hooked up to multiple messaging groups, where they can share content, mobilize around a cause—all while flying under the radar. WhatsApp was a powerful tool in getting Jair Bolsonaro elected president last year. Recently, we found out about a new use of WhatsApp.

Coordinating the destruction of the Amazon rainforest.

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On this episode:

Sam Cowie is a British journalist specialized in covering the Amazon region. He has been published by Al Jazeera, BBC, The Guardian, The Intercept.

Background reading:

Harvard professor Stephen M. Walt pondered what could happen if international superpowers decide to use force to prevent an environmental tragedy. Read it, on Foreign Policy: “Who will save the Amazon (and how)?”
Mr. Walt joined Explaining Brazil in Episode #73: Is Brazil capable of protecting the Amazon on its own?
Images of Amazon destruction over the past decades.
How climate issues are pushing food prices up in Brazil.
Euan Marshall explains what is the Amazon Fund and why it could end.
Why Brazil believes the world wants to steal the Amazon rainforest.
How WhatsApp became a political weapon in Brazil.

Explaining Brazil is made by:

Gustavo Ribeiro, editor in chief of The Brazilian Report. He has extensive experience covering Brazilian politics. His work has been featured across Brazilian and French media outlets, including Veja, Época, Folha de S.Paulo, Médiapart, and Radio France Internationale.
Maria Martha Bruno, producer. She is a journalist with 15 years of experience in politics, arts, and breaking news. She has collaborated with Al Jazeera, NBC, and CNN, among others, and worked as an international correspondent in Buenos Aires.
Euan Marshall, editing. is a journalist and translator who has lived in São Paulo, Brazil since 2011. Specializing in Brazilian soccer, politics and the connection between the two, his work has been published in The Telegraph, Al Jazeera, The Independent, among others.