“They only take what Brazil has historically created from our images and produce fake news against us”. Perception was one of the reports recorded by a survey that heard black LGBTQIA+ people from Rio de Janeiro about the information ecosystem in which they were inserted, on networks and outside them, before and after the 2022 electoral dispute. aggression due to hate speech, especially on the internet, a channel considered the main source of information by 74% of respondents. The study was carried out by Data_Labe, a data laboratory in Complexo da Maré, in the north zone of Rio de Janeiro. In an interview with Agência Brasil, the anthropologist and coordinator of the work, Flávio Rocha, explains that exposure to hate speech affects mental health, causes fear and makes these people fear even exercising their citizenship. “One of the most emblematic narratives was that of a person who, during the election period, said he was afraid to go to the polls”, he says. “Many people need to go to therapy, disconnect from social networks and end up being afraid to go out on the street. We received many reports about this fear, about this impact on mental and emotional health. This was very relevant in our perception”, says the coordinator. The team responsible for the study had four black and LGBTQIA+ researchers, which Rocha considers allowed for greater empathy and sensitivity when approaching the themes and preparing the questions. In addition to the anthropologist, the clinical psychoanalyst Roberta Ribeiro, the graduate student in Conservation and Restoration Joyce Reis and the doctoral student in Collective Health and specialist in Gender and Sexuality Leonardo Peçanha participated. The researchers applied questionnaires and conducted focus groups and individual interviews with people from the target audience, reaching a total of 175 participants. Statistical data, therefore, cannot be extrapolated to the entire black LGBTQIA+ population, but the responses and reports collected in the qualitative research indicate how respondents perceive and appropriate the information available in their circles. Most of the interviewees are women, cisgender and from the north and west zones of Rio. Almost half (45%) of respondents claimed to receive up to R$1,212.00 per month and 81% said they had already come into contact with hate speech. For one in four people, racial or gender-based violence recurs. Check out the interview with the researcher: Agência Brasil: In quantitative terms, the data cannot be extrapolated to the entire black LGBTQIA+ population. But, in qualitative terms, which signs pointed out by the research would you highlight? Flávio Rocha: A first point that I would highlight is one of the most emblematic narratives, which was from a person who, during the election period, said he was afraid to go to vote. He was afraid for being a trans person, an LGBTQIAP+ person and for being a black person. This is a first aspect, the fear of going to the polls due to the hate speech produced about various groups. On a second point, I would go into the lack of representation. Both in the media and in politics. In this last election, we had an increase in trans and LGBTQIAP+ candidates and, to the same extent, we noticed an increase in hate speech against these candidates. In one of the focus groups, there is a speech about how disinformation about these candidacies was produced. They said that “these guys can’t be elected, because they don’t know how to manage public money”. We also interviewed candidates from that election, and most brought some report about hate speech during that campaign or during their mandates, when they already had mandates. Agência Brasil: Why do you believe that disinformation, fake news and hate speech are always hand in hand in the reports of this population? Flávio Rocha: I believe that these three elements appear as political strategies, especially for extreme right candidates. It seems that it was the strategy that was promoted, especially in a context where we have social networks as tools in the political game. It was the way in which the extreme right candidacies knew how to dismantle the so-called progressive or leftist candidacies. Always bringing a discourse about abortion, criminalizing social movements and creating a narrative that these groups are against the churches, something that neo-Pentecostalism abhors. Misinformation about the use of gay kits in schools was a very strong discourse in the 2018 campaign, for example. These elements are a political strategy. Agência Brasil: In the research reports, is violence on digital platforms more recurrent than “offline violence”? Flávio Rocha: Yes, because more and more people are more connected. At all times, there is a requirement that people are online. The offline person is in contact with the places where he circulates. But online, the speech of someone who is in Amapá reaches the person in Rio de Janeiro in seconds. Twitter is the most harmful network in our research reports, as it is a place where people post opinions. Although Instagram is the most used by our respondents, it is not that harmful, as it is an image platform in which discourse is produced in a different way. Agência Brasil: A large number of people reported being victims of hate speech on a recurring basis. What did the qualitative part of the research tell you about the impact of this constant violence? Flávio Rocha: We realized that there is a very big impact on the mental health of these people. A lot of people need to resort to therapy, disconnect from social media and end up being afraid to go out on the street. We received many reports about this fear, about this impact on mental and emotional health. This was very relevant in our perception. Agência Brasil: The research indicated that, in a way, the limitations of cellular data packages increased the exposure of these people to hate speech. Can you explain this mechanism? Flávio Rocha: If a person can only use WhatsApp and Facebook and cannot search for information on Google because he has no data, or if information arrives and the person cannot search and access platforms where he can verify this fact, he will be alone with that information. In our surveyed group, the most reliable means are not their contact networks on platforms, but civil society organizations and alternative media. But if the person is hostage to these platforms, if he is limited by the data package, he will have difficulty in seeking new information or different forms of information. Agência Brasil: And what people have available for free is misinformation? Flávio Rocha: That’s it. Agência Brasil: The survey detected low trust in the government among respondents, and this is a population that needs to be reached by public policies. How can governments better calibrate this communication? Flávio Rocha: I associate the lack of confidence in the government with the fact that the first part of it was done before the second round of elections, before knowing who would be elected, because there was a high rejection of the Jair Bolsonaro government among those interviewed. It was a government that dismantled public policies for the black population and the LGBTQIAP+ population, so there was disbelief. And the Brazilian State has the function of providing information and public policies considering the diversity of all of Brazil, and it also has the role of regulating the media so that there is no production of hate speech and misinformation. We saw massacres in the school environment being promoted through social networks.
Agência Brasil
Folha Nobre - Desde 2013 - ©