The most corrosive problem in society today is the spread of misinformation, assessed Federal Supreme Court (STF) minister Luís Roberto Barroso. This Friday (5) he participated in the 17th International Congress of Investigative Journalism of the Brazilian Association of Investigative Journalism (Abraji).
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At the event, Barroso spoke about the creation of fake news sharing and answered questions from four journalists specializing in politics, disinformation, elections and threats to democracy. The minister also commented on voting systems, hate attacks on the STF and the performance of the Superior Electoral Court (TSE), of which he was president until February this year.
Lies and “barbarity”
Barroso said he had already heard “barbaric things” about him on the internet, but that the publications – which state, for example, that he participated in orgies with former minister José Dirceu (To the Facts) – , and many others do not offend, because they are lies.
“I've heard that I'm gay. I'm not gay, but I'm not offended. I didn't participate in an orgy with Zé Dirceu in Cuba. I didn’t go to Cuba!”, quoted the minister, while, at the same time, new false news about him was published on the networks.
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“My experience is that the only thing that offends is the truth, lies do not offend”, he emphasized, referring to the reproduction of false information about public figures, like him, on and off social media.
Luís Roberto Barroso also said that the intensification of behavior of refusing the truth leads to an increasingly evident risk. “People started to live in a different factual world. There is no longer a common factual universe, which leads to the inability to communicate.”
September 7th and the shadow of fascism
Responding to questions about attacks against Brazilian institutions in the election scenario (in relation to President Jair Bolsonaro and the acts expected for September 7), Barroso stated that it is necessary to separate, in democracy, what is “political support for a candidate” and which is a “path of subversion of democratic rules”.
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Being more specific about next month's demonstrations, the minister believes that the events on September 7th could show the “size of fascism in Brazil”.
(Photo at Top: Marco Pinto | Abraji)
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