Facebook remains Brazil’s leading political battleground

It has been nearly a decade since experts began to suggest that the end might be near for Facebook.

Teens are dropping the app for Snapchat and YouTube, big brands are boycotting it, and Facebook’s role in the spread of disinformation around the world has tainted the image of the world’s largest social network.

But while you and your social bubble might be finished with Facebook, the platform has never been used as much as it is today — including in Brazil.

Facebook has over 130 million monthly users in Brazil — almost ten times as many as Twitter. This number is projected to reach 160 million in 2025, which would mean over 70 percent of the Brazilian population would have a Facebook profile. Meanwhile, on the financial side, Facebook Inc saw profits rise 11 percent in H1 2020 from one year ago.

While it is true that Facebook is losing ground among Gen Z users — which make up a small fraction of its total user base — it continues strong and steady despite its worsening reputation. And one key element helps to understand this discrepancy between perception and reality: private Facebook groups.

According to Facebook’s own data, there are 10 million-plus active groups, used by 1.4 billion people every month. In the latest edition of F8 — a mostly-annual conference held by Facebook, intended for developers and entrepreneurs who build products and services around the website — CEO and founder Mark Zuckerberg indicated that groups are the new heart of the platform.

“Groups restrict the reach of conversations and give the impression that lots of people are abandoning the social network,” says Amanda Jurno, a Ph.D. in communication studies from the...