Brazilian far right imitates American extremists, study shows – 04/06/2021 – World

The Brazilian far right maintains constant interactions with its counterparts in the United States and even “imitates” some of the speeches of American extremists, mainly in relation to allegations of electoral fraud, according to a study by the Analysis Directorate public policies of the Fundação Getúlio Vargas, from the monitoring of accounts on Parler, the microblog which is a kind of Twitter on the right.

Unlike Twitter, which prohibits certain types of content that is harmful or violates community norms, Parler promotes the defense of free speech and generally doesn’t even restrict toxic posts, like pornography and terrorism.

According to the FGV study, after the United States, linked accounts in Brazil are the most active accounts on the platform.

According to monitoring, 53.6% of profiles linked to Brazil interacted with content on electoral fraud, integrating American arguments into the Brazilian context. “We see the Brazilian far right imitating the conspiratorial discourse of the American far right, there is international integration”, explains sociologist Marco Aurélio Ruediger, research coordinator.

Some of the profiles that have had the most interaction with the Brazilian group’s accounts include TeamTrump, Donald Trump’s campaign, WarRoomPandemic, right-wing strategist Steve Bannon, and Himalaya Global, an anti-China profile with conspiracy theories. on the origin of the coronavirus. .

Profiles linked to Brazil also interacted with TommyRobinson (British far-right activist and Islamophobic), dbongino (of Dan Bongino, American ultra-conservative broadcaster) and RealMarjorieGreene (of Republican MP Marjorie Greene, supporter of QAnon’s conspiracy theory who has already been suspended on Twitter).

QAnon followers believe Trump is fighting a progressive global elite of devil worshipers and pedophiles.

“The data points to possible ideological interference from outside far-right groups or countries with authoritarian regimes in the 2022 elections, placing Brazil in the geopolitical game of the anti-democratic radicals,” the study said.

In addition to echoing articles on alleged fraud in the US elections and celebrating the invasion of the Capitol, the profiles of the Brazilian group broadcast mistrust of the Brazilian electoral process and disapproval of institutions, with cherished themes. to Bolsonarism – like the criticism of the Supreme Court and the governors and early treatment of Covid-19.

Talk was one of the main platforms used by Trump supporters to stage the Jan.6 invasion of Capitol Hill, which left five people dead. As a result, it was banned from Google and Apple app stores and then removed from Amazon’s hosting service. He went without an antenna for a few weeks, but returned to another hosting service at the beginning of February.

“This coordination of extreme rights is very worrying, we saw what happened, the invasion of the Capitol. We must be prepared for next year, these networks will be used massively to question the good conduct of the election and to mobilize the militias, ”says Ruediger.

For the study, researchers tracked 93.4 million platform posts, between November 3 and January 7, 2021 – the period includes the U.S. presidential election until the day after the Capitol invasion.

Accounts linked to Brazil range from profiles linked to the government, such as the president himself, deputies and senators, to influencers not linked to institutional politics (Brazilians who post about the country or in Portuguese).

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