Telegram became the chief messenger of Brazil on the spread of fakes about vaccination - The New York Times

Brazilian opponents of vaccination distribute misinformation on vaccinations from Covid-19 mainly through the Telegram messenger, writes The New York Times. According to the publication, this is the most “condescending” information distributor.

Meanwhile, the president of the country Bolsonaru opposed the blocking of fake content. According to him, misinformation is a trivial problem. “Fake news is part of our life,” the president said in September. “Who never lied to his girlfriend?”

Telegram became one of the most popular messengers in Brazil after it began to actively use and advertise Bolsonaru itself. While WhatsApp remains a dominant messaging platform, Telegram quickly gaining momentum. According to NYT, by August it was set in 53% of all smartphones in the country, while two years earlier this figure was 15%.

Brazilian officials fear that Telegram will become the main tool before the presidential election next year. Already now, Bolsonaru, the prospects for the re-election of which were threatened due to the fall of its popularity, publishes in the channel many messages with doubts about the integrity of the Brazil voting system. He writes that with the help of electronic voting machines the results will be falsified. The opposition and judges, in turn, note that the abundance of such misinformation “causes irreparable damage to democracy,” the newspaper writes.

According to Alin Osserio, Secretary General of the Brazil Electoral Court, who oversees his program to combat misinformation, the court established constructive working relations with the administrations of other social networks, which became the conductors of the disinformation campaigns. But attempts to contact Telegram, which is based in Dubai, were unsuccessful.