This content was published on 16 April 2022 – 21:05
Sao Paulo, Apr 16 (EFE) .- The President of Brazil, Jair Bolsonaro, reaffirmed this Saturday that an agreement between WhatsApp and the Electoral Justice that provides for the launch of new messaging network services is “inadmissible” and “unacceptable”. only after the elections that the country will hold in October.
“I have already spoken with (Communications Minister) Fabio Faria and he is going to speak with the WhatsApp representative here in Brazil to explain” the agreement, Bolsonaro said in an interview today with the CNN Brasil network.
The president thus referred to the agreement signed between the messaging platform and the Superior Electoral Court (TSE) that provides that new features of the application, such as the expansion of groups or the simultaneous sending of messages to thousands of users, will only be available after of the presidential elections in order to combat the spread of false news.
“I am going to look for the director of WhatsApp this week and I want to see what agreement that is. If it is for the whole world, I can not do anything, but if it is only for Brazil, do you want clearer proof of the interference in freedom of expression? ?” he added.
Bolsonaro had already criticized the pact the day before, when he participated in a massive motorcycle ride to celebrate Good Friday and which blocked one of the main highways in the state of Sao Paulo for more than five hours.
“It is simply something unacceptable, inadmissible and inconceivable. WhatsApp now has a new policy for the world, but a special, restrictive one for Brazil,” he told supporters.
He also added that the agreement is about “persecution, censorship and discrimination” and that “it is not valid” in the country, so “it will not be fulfilled,” although he did not specify the possible measures that his government could adopt.
This Saturday, Bolsonaro also criticized the electronic voting system, which was adopted in Brazil two decades ago and has never been the subject of a fraud complaint, but which the president, elected with those same ballot boxes in 2018, maintains, without proof. some, that they are “manipulable” and favor cheating. EFE
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