The Instagram account “Contagolpe Brasil”, which displays the photos and names of alleged “putschists”, won more than a million subscribers in a week. A movement of denunciation that the authorities try to channel, without stem it.
by Bruno Meyerfeld (Rio de Janeiro, correspondent)
It is an Instagram account with lightning success. “Contragolpe Brasil” (“Brazil swamps”), Created on the morning of January 9, won, in a short week, more than 1.1 million subscribers online. Its objective is clear and displayed in highlight in its description: the “identification of people who affect democracy in Brazil”. Or the hunt for rioters responsible for the ransacking of the country’s democratic institutions on January 8.
According to him, the account works collaboratively. Internet users send detailed denunciations concerning people suspected of having participated in the riots. CONTEGOLPE Brasil then publishes their names, accompanied by their photography at the time of the facts and their city of residence. In ten days, more than 220 alleged “putschists” have already seen their identity revealed online.
In Brazil, the Instagram account is far from an isolated case. It is supported by a whole series of other profiles on social networks. Among them, the Twitter account
“This method is shocking and risky: the chances of wrongly accusing innocent are enormous”, underlines Denise Dora, director of the NGO Artigo 19, working for the defense of freedom of expression in Brazil. “It is the result of the great confusion and the immense emotion that have aroused the events of January 8. All this is affected directly on social networks,” she notes. This violation of privacy and The presumption of innocence endangers people but also their families. “
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