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Death by Facebook

by AVAAZ
Brazil has elected Jair Bolsonaro President, a man who praises torture, says he'll end all activism and threatens to kill 30,000 leftists. How could this insanity happen?!?!

Facebook.
Facebook's WhatsApp has illegally spread vast quantities of fake news in Brazil, convincing huge percentages of voters that Bolsonaro's opponent distributed "gay kits" to turn school kids gay, advocated incest and pedophilia, and rigged voting machines. Believing lies like that, people choose the lesser monster.

How many democracies need to die before CEO Zuckerberg cleans up his act? How many do we have left?

WhatsApp is even worse than Facebook, because it's all encrypted - it's a free for all for child porn, human traffickers, and toxic fake news. With major elections approaching, we desperately need WhatsApp to make encryption optional, delete fake and fraudulent accounts and correct fake news. This is the moment when we can shame them into action - sign the petition and Avaaz will blanket Silicon Valley with our message:

Zuckerberg: Clean up WhatsApp!
https://secure.avaaz.org/campaign/en/wa_destroys_democracy_13/

After millions of us brought pressure and governments answered, Facebook has begun to make changes. But in Brazil that just drove all the 'disinformation' activity into WhatsApp, which is used by 120 million Brazilians. Media there reports that a number of large corporations illegally set up as many as 300,000 WhatsApp groups to spread fake news to 75 million Brazilians!

It worked - just weeks ago 67% of Brazilians said they would "never" vote for Bolsonaro. Now, more than 55% voted for him. We have to stop this madness before it's too late. This is about all our children's futures. Let's demand that Zuckerberg clean up WhatsApp, and save our democracies:

Zuckerberg: Clean up WhatsApp!
https://secure.avaaz.org/campaign/en/wa_destroys_democracy_13/

Avaaz is fighting fake news and disinformation across the world. In Brazil, our "Elves" group exposed and got one of the largest disinformation networks in the country taken down. But it was too little, too late. Social media algorithms have vast power over our societies, and they're force feeding us poison right now. For the sake of everything we love, let's clean them up, before it's too late.

With hope,

Ricken, Fadi, Alice, Rosa, Christoph, Emma, and the rest of the Avaaz team

MORE INFORMATION:

India WhatsApp 'child kidnap' rumours claim two more victims (The BBC)
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-44435127

The three types of WhatsApp users getting Brazil's Jair Bolsonaro elected (The Guardian)
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/oct/25/brazil-president-jair-bolsonaro-whatsapp-fake-news

WhatsApp has a fake news problem—that can be fixed without breaking encryption (Columbia Journalism Review)
https://www.cjr.org/tow_center/whatsapp-doesnt-have-to-break-encryption-to-beat-fake-news.php

Avaaz is a 47-million-person global campaign network that works to ensure that the views and values of the world's people shape global decision-making. ("Avaaz" means "voice" or "song" in many languages.) Avaaz members live in every nation of the world; our team is spread across 18 countries on 6 continents and operates in 17 languages.
https://secure.avaaz.org/page/en/
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