Brazil’s long-running ‘fake news inquiry’ inches closer to Bolsonaro

Upon taking office for a two-year stint as head of the Brazilian Supreme Court in November 2018, Justice Dias Toffoli said it was time for the judicial branch to “step out of the spotlight” acting more as umpires rather than active players. Justice Toffoli took charge off the back of a string of headline-catching cases for the court, including one which kept former President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva — the frontrunner at the time — out of the 2018 presidential election, and later sent him to prison.

However, that promise of temperance was short-lived. In March 2019, the then-chief justice opened a criminal inquiry to investigate a slew of disinformation, insults, and threats, which “damaged the honor and safety” of the court, its members, and their families. 

It put the Supreme Court in the awkward position of being judge, jury, and executioner. The tribunal launched the case, oversaw the investigation, and would later be charged with deciding its final outcome. The obvious conflict of interests was laid bare the following month, when the court used the inquiry to try and censor a report linking Justice Toffoli to a corrupt construction company.

It seems that instead of tackling disinformation, the justices wanted to shield themselves from negative press — whether accurate or otherwise.

Since its rocky beginning, the inquiry has evolved into an examination of how far-right online disinformation rings are working to undermine Brazil’s democratic institutions...