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This check was produced by the Comprava coalition. Read more here.
- Verified content: Twitter profile trying to impersonate the candidate for mayor of São Paulo Guilherme Boulos wrote that he would enact a different closure in which Paulistans should open their houses to receive homeless people
It is false that Guilherme Boulos, PSOL’s candidate for mayor of São Paulo, tweeted about harboring homeless people in empty rooms in São Paulo houses. The profile @ boulos50, which tried to copy the politician’s real page and was suspended by Twitter, published on November 18 that the candidate would do a “different” confinement, decreeing that citizens with one or more empty rooms at home would have to house street residents in their properties, “for the safety of all.”
Is not true. He addresses the homeless and the pandemic in his government program, published before the first round of elections. Among the proposals presented are the “reinforcement of prevention measures in the public and collective sphere” and the “institution of Solidarity Income for nearly one million people living in vulnerable situations.”
We contacted the candidate’s team, who said: “Unfortunately, our campaign has been the target of countless false news. We cannot allow them to mark another election. ” We were unable to contact the author of the fake tweet because, as stated above, his account had been suspended.
How do we verify it?
First, we searched Twitter for the username featured in the print that went viral, @ Boulos50. As of the date of our search, the account was already suspended.
Then, we contacted the PSOL campaign advisor, Guilherme Boulos’s party, who told us that his account on the social network is @GuilhermeBoulos, which even has the Twitter verification stamp. By WhatsApp they sent us a note about the case.
We also investigate the candidate’s government plan and the statements he has already made on his official Twitter account and in reports on homelessness, invasions and the pandemic.
check
Profile
On Twitter, the name of the users is part of the link to access the profile. Therefore, the account you posted appears in the print that went viral, @ Boulos50, should be available at twitter.com/boulos50. However, the link shows that she was suspended for violating social media rules.
In the profile, there are no details about which rules would have been violated, but on Twitter there are rules linked to the authenticity of the accounts: “it is not allowed to assume the identity of persons, groups or organizations with the intention of deceiving, confusing or deceiving”.
Looking for the name of Guilherme Boulos on Twitter, we went to another account, @GuilhermeBoulos, which has the seal of authenticity granted by the social network itself. According to Twitter, the blue stamp “informs people that a public interest account is authentic.”
In Boulos’ real account, we did not find any publication with the same content as the impression that went viral, and the misspelling of the word “lockdown”, which appears in the tweet as “lookdow” is another element that indicates the lack of authenticity of the publication.
Homeless and invasions
In addition to talking about homeless people in his government plan, on November 1 Boulos addressed the issue on his Twitter, stating: “in the first 180 days we will implement the Plan Vida e Renda SP, with real combat to the pandemic.” And, on November 19, on the same network, he wrote that “if there is a second wave (of covid-19), to avoid contagion in houses with many people, where isolation is not practical, we can temporarily accommodate family members in City Council teams. ”.
As the coordinator of the Movement of Homeless Workers (MTST) and one of the main leaders of the left in the country, Boulos often has his name linked to this type of fake content and has already dealt with a video on YouTube about disinformation. He affirms that he has been working in social movements for 20 years and that “the MTST, contrary to what the fake news says, never invaded anyone’s house.” “What it does is identify properties (in an irregular situation, such as those that have been abandoned for more than a decade, without paying taxes) and occupy, together with the people, pressure the public power to fulfill its role,” he says. .
Why do we investigate?
The Comprava Project, in its third phase, verifies content that is viralized on social networks linked to public policies of the federal government, the new coronavirus pandemic and municipal elections.
Disinformation is always dangerous, but when it involves election candidates, it becomes even more problematic because it can change the outcome of the polls based on lies. In general, candidates for public office have qualities, but also flaws, and you don’t have to make up stories to discredit them.
The verified tweet, which falsely attributes a controversial position to one of the candidates running for mayor of the country’s largest city in the second round, had more than 1,500 interactions only in the Aliança pelo Brasil group, made up of supporters of the president Jair Bolsonaro (without party). – Although it has the same name as the party in process at the TSE, the group has no formal connection with the political association. The content was also replicated by various other profiles on Facebook and Twitter. The Aos Fatos agency also verified the content, classifying it as false.
Comprava has already verified other content related to the elections, such as those that showed that a recent hacker attack on the STJ was not a threat to election security and that The Brazilian electronic voting system can be audited, contrary to what a publication on social networks claimed..
False, for Comprava, is all content that has been invented or that has been modified to change its original meaning and deliberately disseminated to spread a lie.
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