Netflix, YouTube, and Amazon Prime were censored by the far-right Jair Bolsonaro administration back in March 2022. The Justice Ministry ordered all major streaming platforms to remove the film “Como se Tornar o Pior Aluno da Escola” (How to Become a School’s Worst Student), a comedy starring talk show host Danilo Gentili.
The move was heavily criticized at the same time by freedom of speech advocates, including the Brazilian Press Association (ABI), which successfully sued the federal government to lift the gag order.
The Bolsonaro administration kept legal opinions that supported the censorship decision under wraps. It denied all requests from The Brazilian Report under Brazil’s access to information laws, including at the highest level, a committee led by the office of the president’s chief of staff. We finally obtained the records with a new request filed after the beginning of the Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva administration.
The film originally opened in theaters in 2017, with positive reviews from conservative politicians at the time. Creator Mr. Gentili rose to fame as a reporter in CQC, a now-defunct weekly TV program blending comedy and journalism, and quickly made a name for his “politically incorrect” statements.
Early in 2019, he hosted then-President Bolsonaro on...
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