Brazil’s Federal Public Ministry (PGR) urged the Federal Supreme Court Justice, Minister Alexandre de Moraes, to mandate leading social media platforms – including Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, and LinkedIn – to hand over detailed data on ALL followers of President Jair Bolsonaro.
The extraordinary request, part of an ongoing investigation into alleged potential “criminal” activities by Bolsonaro, arrived only two days following the events of January 8, where Bolsonaro supporters pushed their way into Brazil’s National Congress.
The incident in question centers around a video, subsequently removed, in which Bolsonaro was seen criticizing the electoral system.
Spearheading the investigation into the events of January 8, Deputy Attorney General of the Republic, Carlos Frederico Santos, has also requested Justice Moraes to renew his call to Meta to provide a copy of the controversial video. Additionally, Santos called for detailed reports on the video’s digital footprint, including metrics such as views, likes, shares, reposts, comments, and any other quantifiable interactions.
Expanding the ambit of the request, as reported on Metrópoles, the PGR is also demanding access to all of Bolsonaro’s posts concerning elections, electronic ballot boxes, the Superior Electoral Court (TSE), Federal Supreme Court (STF), and the Armed Forces.
Notably, Santos has expressed firm resistance against two proposals previously made by Federal Public Ministry prosecutors. The suggestions, presented in a petition during the inquiry, called for the testimony of specialists in the field of political communication of extremist movements, as well as those engaged in monitoring groups of Bolsonaro’s followers.
In Santos’s view, finding an expert capable of providing impartial surveillance of Bolsonaro’s follower groups, without the influence of any ideological or partisan bias, is fraught with “extreme difficulty.”
