You’re reading The Brazilian Report‘s weekly tech roundup, a digest of the most important news on technology and innovation in Brazil. This week’s topics: How serious is Big Tech in fighting fake news and misinformation in Brazil? São Paulo leads the way in research and development. The government’s bad idea to create a central citizen database. Google Pay adapts to the Brazilian market.
Prior to the 2018 election, Supreme Court Justice Luiz Fux—who at the time presided over the Superior Electoral Court—pointed to the spread of fake news and misinformation as major risks for Brazilian democracy. Yet, the court did little to curb the widespread use of social media for fearmongering by all major campaigns.
Eyeing the 2020 municipal election, the court is unwilling to repeat the same mistakes. On October 22, the electoral justice system will announce an alliance with Google, Facebook, Twitter, and WhatsApp to pool their efforts and curb misinformation in the election season.
Observers can be forgiven for being skeptical of how much Big Tech will actually engage in the efforts. In recent years, Silicon Valley giants have given half-hearted apologies and refused to fully recognize their roles in the rise of extreme political views—amplified by the echo-chamber effect social media creates. But Brazilian authorities are seeing the glass half-full.
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