Lack of moderation on the networks leads to misinformation, says Janja

First Lady Janja Lula da Silva sent a letter to members of the Alliance of First Ladies of Latin America (Alma) in which she highlighted the lack of moderation on social networks as an ally for increasing the dissemination of fake news across platforms. Here is the full text (521 KB).

Janja forwarded the document to Alma after being invited to participate in a virtual group meeting this Monday (27.Feb.2023). She said she could not attend the event due to the start of the bivalent vaccination campaign against covid-19. President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT) was vaccinated by Vice President Geraldo Alckmin (PSD) during the launch of the program.

The sociologist sent the letter with points to be discussed at a meeting between the first ladies. She cited the fact that Latin America has been the target of “various political coups and destabilization attempts”, using the 8th of January in Brazil as an example. He then cited social networks as a means of disseminating fake news.

“A tool that has been widely used in recent years to interfere and destabilize democracies around the world is Fake News, disinformation as a tool to manipulate the population around important issues such as voting, rights, public funds, corruption, and moral guidelines. such as religions, gender and sexuality issues and the defamation of specific people”he stated.

He also said that the fake news found “relevance and potentiality” through social networks such as Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp, and that this disinformation process does not only affect the country, but “It affects me personally to find myself in the position of first lady of Brazil“.

“The way […] work and the lack of adequate moderation, combined with the absence of regulations and legislation regulating these platforms, both at the national and global level (due to the transnational nature of the internet), place them at the center of these disinformation processes”these.

GLOBAL GOVERNANCE

The first lady also defended “a new global governance” for Latin America, emphasizing the urgency of dealing with the issues set out in the document. Janja suggested that the Alma members think of a way to use their positions to promote change.

“The climate crises and the global economic crisis, which are intrinsically connected in the problem and the solution, demand a new global governance, where our countries can participate with more equality in decision-making”, stated.

Janja said that Latin American countries need to participate in global decisions, such as wars, sanctions and blockades, cooperation plans and multilateral action.

“And directly on solutions to the climate crisis in order to mitigate risks and guarantee the participation and protection of vulnerable populations, which are those facing the greatest impacts of environmental and human catastrophes, and which are in our countries, mainly, on the periphery of the economy ”concluded the first lady.