Over the past weeks we’ve been reporting on the potential uses of the Internet and social networks on election campaigns. However, we know from previous elections that, on the virtual environment, candidates and voters are not only exposed to the facilitation of minority agendas and expansion of the possibilities of debate, but also to problems like virtual attacks or posts marked by intolerance and prejudice. Last week, some happenings along these lines deserve to be highlighted: the attack to a portal destined to the campaign of a São Paulo City Council candidate, on September 15th, and the posting of hate speech messages on the page of a Black Brotherhood on the city of Ribeirão das Neves (MG), after the visit of a City Hall candidate, on September 21st.

The Márcio Black case

Márcio Black is a long time activist for the Black movement and groups for a greater democratization of the urban space. He is a candidate for the Rede party to the São Paulo City Council. In a post on his Facebook page, Márcio reported that his website was off the air due to attacks that overloaded his server and tried to hack it.

Each website, depending on which server it is hosted, has a maximum capacity of access (slots). This way, a common technique to take down a website is to direct to it more accesses than it supports, which overloads the server and ends up bringing the page down. This kind of attack is called “Denial of Service” (DoS). DoS attacks happen all the time, many times motivated by ideological or political motives. When it happens to companies or people who have resources, the possibility of recovering the page and defending its information and data is bigger. Márico had to migrate to a safer server and, even then, the attacks continued.

According to the candidate, one of the consequences of taking down the website was to temporarily lose the possibility of advertising his propositions, which were centered there. Although he also uses the social networks, the candidate considers that a website allows his propositions to be seen in a more organized and practical manner, especially in relation to Facebook or Twitter, in which the chronological order of the feed is mandatory to explore and find any content. After what happened, Márcio put more content on Facebook, as a precaution.  

A “variation” on this type of offensive can also be observed on the social networks — with distinct methods and reasons. Over the past years, activists like Stephanie Ribeiro and Jéssica Ipólito had their Facebook profiles deactivated due to constant content violation reports. In this cases, the platform declared that their employees analyse the content and  proceed with the removal in case of a violation of the terms of use, but some profiles and contents are brought down, many times, without a violation —  what the platform justifies as humans mistakes. Márcio Black affirmed in an interview that he did not went through this, but suffered attempts to break into his profile from time to time — someone tried to change his password, for instance.

In common with Stephanie, Jéssica and Márcio is the militancy surrounding racial issues, which usually raises strong reactions of intolerance online. Márcio attributed the attacks to his website to the characteristics of his candidacy:

What could have caused the attacks on this place: firstly, the issue of the candidacy that is growing and can threaten other candidates; and the other is the racial issue. It bothers many people to see a black candidacy gaining space and growing so fast like ours, so we see it like this. I think that the biggest motivation is surely more the fact that it is a black candidacy than for it to be a growing one. This should be the fundamental point on the attempt to take down our website, because it is especially on it that are all of our propositions: we chose the website as the main platform to post the propositions, as it is more organized.

The case of the Nossa Senhora do Rosário de Justinópolis Brotherhood

Still on the last week, in the city of Ribeirão das Neves (Minas Gerais), the Brotherhood of the Nossa Senhora do Rosário de Justinópolis released a letter of repudiation on the hate speech posts its Facebook page had suffered. The occurrence started when a photo of the City Hall candidate Antônio Carlos Cantor (PPS) visiting the community was published in his profile and shared by Gracinha Barbosa, previous Mayor of the city and current campaign coordinator of the City Hall candidate Irani Barbosa (PMDB). On the post, the former Mayor affirms:

People, I’m getting sick, pray for me, Cantor (the rival candidate) is in the MACUMBA, have mercy, I’m the (campaign) coordinator, but please help me out.”

According to the letter, when questioned by individuals on the discriminatory character of the post, Barbosa replied with defamatory comments. The post of the former Mayor was shared by another user, contributing even more to the visibilization of the offenses to the group, who identified both conducts as racism and intolerance crime directed to the black community (even if they are catholic):

Upon such defamatory comments from our past Mayor, it’s our job to clarify firstly that our religion is catholic and that we do not make anyone “sick” (…) The mention on the post to “macumba”, it’s worth clarifying, was intentionally used to refer pejoratively to our secular cultural practises that are impregnated by the rich Afro-Brazilian history and ancestrality. Once the negative connotation that this word colloquially acquired in Brazil over the last few decades it’s public and notorious, as a result of the inumerous racism and religious intolerance actions practised by diverse segments of the Brazilian society, especially against the followers of Candomblé, Umbanda and the other African religions, that, as it is known, never did nor do have have in its religious foundations the purpose to sicken or harm any individual.

As it had recently happened with other traditional Catholic Brotherhoods in our state, unfortunately this time our dear Nossa Senhora do Rosário de Justinópolis Brotherhood was the victim of the racism and religious intolerance that poison our current society.

The letter also points out that legal actions are being taken with the aim to make “a social and political pedagogy that corroborate so that outrageous facts like these are never again repeated in our city and in our state.”

This happenings seem to indicate that, in the municipal electoral process and its developments on the Internet, the recurrent dynamics of the racial relations in Brazil are also expressed: the attempt to silence black people and the disrespect to the identity and religious or cultural manifestations of this group. But it is also on the dynamics of the political construction on this medium that we can see the perception of the victims (the candidate and the group of voters), and more than that, also the use of the Internet for the denunciation, visibilization of facts and forwarding of the applicable measures. Once again and on the limit, this environment shows itself determining to influence the course of candidacies.

Team responsible for the content: Mariana Giorgetti Valente (mariana@internetlab.org.br), Natália Neris (natalia.neris@internetlab.org.br), Juliana Pacetta Ruiz (juliana.ruiz@internetlab.org.br) and Clarice Tambelli (clarice.tambelli@internetlab.org.br).

Translated by Ana Luiza Araujo