In The Aftermath Of Riots, Brazil Faces The Challenge Of Countering Online Radicalization

Published January 14, 2023 By admin with Comments 1

The world watched in disbelief this month as far-right activists trashed major government buildings and threatened to attack key infrastructure, including roads and airports in Brazil. Now, as concerns grow over the possibility of new riots occurring in the coming days, the country’s new administration faces the significant challenge of countering the ongoing rise in radicalization spurred by social media.

Under what is considered the most severe threat to democracy since Brazil resurfaced from a dictatorship in 1985, thousands of supporters of former president Jair Bolsonaro stormed into sites including the Congress and the presidential office on Sunday, leaving behind a trail of destruction. Their motive was the result of the October elections won by Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, making Bolsonaro the only Brazilian president to ever fail at a reelection attempt. As scores of protesters were arrested, the former head of state, who fled to Florida before Lula took office, adopted an ambiguous stance.

However shocking these events may be, they are not necessarily a surprise. According to experts, the riots in Brasília and elsewhere in the largest economy in Latin America were the result of a process that has unfolded for nearly a decade. As developments such as the economic crisis and Dilma Rousseff’s impeachment in 2013 took place, anti-left feelings arose along with growing dissatisfaction with the status quo, and protesters took to the streets between 2015 and 2016.

Given that Brazil was in dire economic straits, with widening inequality, rampant violence, and corruption, all the conditions were in place to facilitate the rise of the far-right. In that context, social networks became a primary vehicle for political radicalization in Brazil, said Guilherme Casarões, a professor of Political Science at the São Paulo School of Business Administration (FGV/EAESP) and a senior researcher at the Brazilian Center of International Relations (CEBRI).

Content retrieved from: https://www.forbes.com/sites/angelicamarideoliveira/2023/01/13/in-the-aftermath-of-riots-brazil-faces-the-challenge-of-countering-online-radicalization/?sh=2406e71833d7.