This Wednesday, June 18, YouTube took down a live stream made by President Jair Bolsonaro (Liberal Party) on July 29, 2021, in which he made false claims against the Brazilian electronic voting system.
The live stream content is part of what was featured during a meeting that took place this Monday between Bolsonaro and foreign ambassadors. That is why YouTube is analyzing whether they will take down the meeting broadcast, also hosted on the platform.
In a statement, the company informed that, since March 2022, they have been removing content with “false allegations that the Brazilian electronic voting machines were hacked in the 2018 presidential election and that the votes were altered”. Therefore, the content removed this Monday is “one of the examples of what we do not allow according to our anti-disinformation policy during elections”.
Among the fake news Bolsonaro shared during the meeting, he said to the attendees that the electronic voting system cannot be audited. “Only two countries in the world have adopted our voting system. Several other countries either don't use it or started using it, however, they came to the conclusion that it is not a reliable system because it is not possible to audit it," he said.
“It is just impossible to audit elections in Brazil”, he added. Bolsonaro also stated that the Supreme Electoral Court’s approach “does not fit the democratic system”.
Bolsonaro’s statements are part of his moves to discredit the Brazilian electoral process. On several occasions, Bolsonaro said that he has pieces of evidence that put at stake the security of electronic voting machines. However, he never made them public.
Amid his coupist bursts, the retired captain is behind former President Lula (Workers’ Party) in all polls. In one of the most recent, the Workers Party candidate has 45% of voter support, while Bolsonaro has 36%, according to a EXAME/IDEIA poll released on July 15.
Edited by: Flávia Chacon e Rodrigo Durão Coelho
