WhatsApp assembles battalion of 200 lawyers ahead of Brazil elections

WhatsApp has assembled a battalion of 200 lawyers to handle all requests from judges across the country in the final stages of Brazil’s election campaign, writes g1 in its latest report.

The Meta-controlled company is preparing for all rulings and requests, Dario Durigan, WhatsApp’s head of public policy in Brazil, told Reuters.

The country’s most-used messaging app, WhatsApp, gets even more public attention in election years like the current one, as the service  andgly used to spread fake news and court rulings.

Unlike social media such as Facebook and Twitter, WhatsApp does not perform content moderation of messages shared on its platform and claims they are protected by encryption.

However, all social media have been asked to do more to prevent the spread of hate speech and fake news.

A couple of days ago, the app was at the center of a controversy after Supreme Court (STF) Justice Alexandre de Moraes authorized federal police searches of businessmen supporting President Jair Bolsonaro.

According to a report on the website Metrópoles, these business people preached a coup d’état in a WhatsApp group in case Bolsonaro lost the election.

According to Dario Durigan, WhatsApp’s head of public policy in Brazil, messages on the platform are protected by encryption.

The path the company has taken to curb disinformation is to avoid mass messaging, one of the most common means of spreading fake news.

For one, the app uses mechanisms to detect and close automated accounts. “We close about eight million automated accounts every month,” he told Reuters, referring to global data.

He said that WhatsApp has also restricted forwarding messages through groups and filed lawsuits to ban companies that specialize in sending bulk messages.

COMBATING WHAT IS CALLED MISINFORMATION

On Monday, WhatsApp expanded its partnership with the Superior Electoral Court (TSE), which began in April, to review the information posted on the platform as concerned about spreading fake news ahead of Brazil’s October elections.

The service is available to social media users connected to the TSE number on the platform – (61) 99637-1078 – a contact to which they can forward messages received with information about the electoral process.

The TSE then forwards the consultation to four information verification bodies: AFP Checamos, Agência Lupa, Aos Fatos, Estadão Verifica.

They then review the response and forward it to the applicant.

“Instead of divided efforts, a unified verification can better help combat disinformation,” Durigan said.

The information verification service builds on a WhatsApp agreement with TSE earlier this year, through which users could access pre-verified information.

With information from g1