January, 09 2023, 12:18pm EDT
Brazil's insurrection directly aided by tech platforms, say campaigners
Researchers from SumOfUs had warned of attempted coup for months as platforms like Facebook, TikTok and Telegram allowed anti-democratic movement to flourish
LONDON
Global campaign group SumOfUs has accused social media platforms including Facebook, TikTok and Telegram of enabling yesterday’s assault on Brazil’s Congress and called for an immediate investigation into their role in the crisis.
The 20-million strong citizens’ network said the companies had failed to heed months’ of warnings that their platforms were helping to grow an anti-democratic movement in the run up to the Brazilian presidential election, including by directing users towards pro-coup content.
SumOfUs researchers have been monitoring Brazil’s social media landscape since September 7 and, in a series of reports, highlighted the extent of electoral disinformation and violent content in circulation. Along with Brazilian and international partners, the group repeatedly called on social media companies to take immediate steps to tackle the problem in order to prevent a repeat of the January 6 attacks on the US Capitol. Key findings included:
- On TikTok, five out of eight of the top search results for the keyword “ballots” were for terms such as “rigged ballots” and “ballots being manipulated”;
- Facebook and Instagram directed thousands of users who entered basic search terms about the election to groups challenging the integrity of the vote;
- Facebook was actively approving harmful ads that sowed doubt in the election results, including ads that specifically called for a military coup. These problematic ads racked up 615,000 impressions;
- YouTube allowed Bolsonaro's Stop the Steal narrative to go viral on its platform, with videos promoting this conspiracy theory gaining more than 22 million views, and 2.3 million Facebook interactions.
"This assault on Brazilian democracy can come as no surprise to social media executives, who were warned time and again that their platforms, tools and algorithms were directly aiding a violent uprising in Brazil. We’ve now seen this happen in two of the world’s major democracies — if governments fail to respond, more will inevitably pay the price."SumOfUs is calling for a rigorous investigation into yesterday’s actions, including into the role of social media platforms in facilitating the attack on Brazilian democracy.
SumOfUs is a community of people from around the world committed to curbing the growing power of corporations. We want to buy from, work for and invest in companies that respect the environment, treat their workers well and respect democracy. And we're not afraid to hold them to account when they don't. Barely a day goes by without a fresh corporate scandal making headlines. From polluting the environment to dodging taxes - when left unchecked, corporations don't let anything stand in the way of bigger profits. In an age of multinational companies that are bigger and richer than some countries, it can be easy to feel powerless. But there is a chink in their armor. The biggest corporations in the world rely on ordinary people to keep them in business. We are their customers, their employees, and often their investors. When we act together, we can be more powerful than they are. Together, our community of millions act as a global consumer watchdog - running and winning campaign
LATEST NEWS
UK Lawyers Sign 'Declaration of Conscience' Not to Prosecute Peaceful Climate Protesters
"It's the ordinary people of this country, taking a stand against this greed and destruction that the British legal system prosecutes and imprisons, jailing them just for talking about the climate crisis and fuel poverty."
Mar 24, 2023
More than 120 mostly English lawyers on Friday published a "declaration of conscience" pledging to withhold their services from "supporting new fossil fuel projects" and "action against climate protesters exercising their democratic right of peaceful protest."
The United Kingdom has in recent years faced protests from numerous climate groups, including those with more pronounced direct actions like Just Stop Oil, Insulate Britain, and Extinction Rebellion. As part of those protests, participants have filled the streets, blocked fossil fuel facilities, glued scientific papers and themselves to a government building, called out major law firms for "defending climate criminals," and even, controversially, tossed tomato soup on one of Vincent van Gogh's glass-protected paintings.
Released on the heels of the latest Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report, the lawyers' statement notes the U.K. Parliament's 2019 climate emergency declaration, the International Energy Agency's warning against future oil and gas development, and United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres' proclamation that "investing in new fossil fuels infrastructure is moral and economic madness."
The attorneys' declaration also recognizes that the world is on track to breach the 2015 Paris climate agreement's 1.5°C goal and the "dire consequences" of doing so, pointing out that "in the U.K. alone, we are already seeing unprecedented heatwaves, wildfires, flooding, and coastal erosion. In other parts of the globe the effects are already far worse."
Along with vowing to restrict their services, the lawyers:
- Called upon the U.K. government and other attorneys to take action;
- Advocated for law and litigation reform related to mitigating and adapting to global warming;
- Expressed support for the democratic right to peaceful protest, which is under attack in the United Kingdom; and
- Committed to donating their time and money to climate causes.
The attorneys, collectively calling themselves Lawyers Are Responsible, are supported by the groups Good Law Project and Plan B.Earth—whose director, Tim Crosland, highlighted that "the U.N. has said we're on a 'highway to climate hell' and that to get off it, we need to stop new fossil fuel developments now. But behind every new oil and gas deal sits a lawyer getting rich."
"Meanwhile, it's the ordinary people of this country, taking a stand against this greed and destruction that the British legal system prosecutes and imprisons, jailing them just for talking about the climate crisis and fuel poverty," Crosland said. "The rule of law has been turned on its head. Lawyers are responsible. It's time to take a stand."
Taking a stand is not without risk. In the United Kingdom, generally, solicitors advise clients on specific issues and barristers argue in court—and the former are able to choose their cases and clients while the latter are subject to the "cab rank rule," obligating them to provide services as long as they are qualified, even if the case or client is objectionable.
As Lawyers Are Responsible's website details in response to some right-wing outrage over the declaration:
The classic example of the cab rank rule in action is of a criminal barrister who accepts a brief to represent a person accused of murder, against whom there is strong evidence of guilt. In that situation, there is no conflict between the cab rank rule and the interests of justice. The barrister is agreeing to perform his or her role within a system of justice that produces, on the whole, just outcomes. By representing the accused, the barrister is merely helping to ensure that there is a fair trial and is serving the greater good.
The signatories to the declaration are convinced that at the present time offering their services in support of new fossil fuel projects or action against peaceful climate protesters would not serve the greater good.
Good Law Project director and declaration signatory Jolyon Maugham wrote in a Friday opinion piece for The Guardian that "like Big Tobacco, the fossil fuel industry has known for decades what its activities mean. They mean the loss of human life and property, which the civil law should prevent but does not."
"The scientific evidence is that global heating, the natural and inevitable consequence of its actions, will cause the deaths of huge numbers of people. The criminal law should punish this but it does not," Maugham continued. "Nor does the law recognize a crime of ecocide to deter the destruction of the planet. The law works for the fossil fuel industry—but it does not work for us."
"Today's history books speak with horror about what the law of yesterday did, of how it permitted racism, rape, and murder," he added. "And tomorrow's history books will say the same about the law as it stands today, of how it enabled the destruction of our planet and the displacement of billions of people."
The Guardianreported that "18 barristers, including six king's counsel, have signed the declaration" and "will now self-refer to the Bar Standards Board." The newspaper noted that while barristers can face fines for rule-breaking, "the consequences can be more far-reaching for junior members of the profession, who can find themselves blocked from receiving the 'silk' awarded to king's counsel, or from promotion to the judiciary."
In a statement from Plan B, one junior lawyer who wished to remain anonymous said that "young lawyers are being placed in an impossible position. We're being told by our firms and regulators it's a professional obligation to act for fossil fuel projects, knowing that doing so will poison our own future and all of life on Earth."
"That's wrong on every level. It's indefensible," the lawyer added. "If the profession doesn't look out for my generation, how does it expect to survive?"
Keep ReadingShow Less
Senate Dems Blast Medicare Advantage Giants Over 'Exorbitant' CEO Pay
"It is outrageous that industry groups, on your behalf, are putting your plan's enormous profits over care for seniors," wrote Sens. Elizabeth Warren and Jeff Merkley.
Mar 24, 2023
Sens. Elizabeth Warren and Jeff Merkley are calling attention to the massive profits and "exorbitant" executive salaries of top Medicare Advantage insurers such as UnitedHealthcare and Humana, which are leading a lobbying blitz against efforts to combat widespread fraud in the privately run healthcare program.
“In 2022, the seven major Medicare Advantage health care insurers—UnitedHealthcare, CVS/Aetna, Cigna, Elevance Health, Humana, Centene, and Molina—brought in revenues of $1.25 trillion and reported total profits of $69.3 billion, a 287% increase in profits since 2012," the Democratic senators wrote in recent letters to the companies' CEOs, citing an analysis by Wendell Potter of the Center for Health and Democracy.
"But rather than investing in benefits for patients," they added, "these seven health insurers instead spent $26.2 billion on stock buybacks."
Warren (D-Mass.) and Merkley (D-Ore.) also highlighted the "extraordinary salaries" of the insurance giants' CEOs and other top executives. Brian Thompson, who became UnitedHealthcare's CEO in 2021, brought home nearly $10 million in total compensation that year, according to SEC filings.
Humana chief executive Bruce Broussard raked in more than $17 million in 2021.
The letters were sent Wednesday as the insurance industry continues to ramp up its attacks on Biden administration proposals aimed at reining in upcoding and other tactics that Medicare Advantage plans use to reap larger payments from the federal government, which funds the program.
Critics of Medicare Advantage argue that such overpayments—which topped $15 billion in fiscal year 2021 alone—are "depleting the Medicare Trust Fund" at the expense of patients, who are frequently denied medically necessary care.
"MA plans are consistently paid more for seniors' care," Warren and Merkley noted, "and MedPAC projects that total Medicare payments to MA plans in 2023 will be $27 billion higher than if MA beneficiaries were enrolled in traditional Medicare."
"Rather than investing in benefits for patients, these seven health insurers instead spent $26.2 billion on stock buybacks."
Even though the Biden administration's proposed reforms would still leave Medicare Advantage plans with payments that are around 1% higher per enrollee in 2024 compared to this year, the insurance industry has characterized the changes as a cut and warned that their implementation would lead to higher premiums and worse care for beneficiaries.
In their letters, Warren and Merkley accused the for-profit insurance industry of attempting "to scare seniors and people with disabilities into opposing changes that will reduce waste, fraud, and abuse" in Medicare Advantage.
As The New York Timesreported earlier this week, "Medicare officials have been inundated with more than 15,000 comment letters for and against the policies, and roughly two-thirds included identical phrases from form letters."
"Insurers used television commercials and other strategies to urge Medicare Advantage customers to contact their lawmakers," the Times added. "The effort generated about 142,000 calls or letters to protest the changes, according to the Better Medicare Alliance, one of the lobbying groups involved."
That group—which counts Aetna, Humana, and other insurance giants as "ally organizations"—purchased a Super Bowl ad urging the White House not to "cut" Medicare Advantage:
Warren and Merkley voiced outrage that Medicare Advantage insurers would respond to the Biden administration's proposed policy changes by threatening "actions that hurt seniors"—such as premium hikes—"instead of reducing exorbitant salaries or the massive payouts to your shareholders and executives."
"It is outrageous that industry groups, on your behalf, are putting your plan's enormous profits over care for seniors," the senators wrote to the insurance company CEOs.
Keep ReadingShow Less
'Speechless': US, Canada Agree on Plan to Turn Away Asylum-Seekers
"We're simply creating the worst scenario possible" for migrants, said one activist.
Mar 24, 2023
In a move that critics say will push people to attempt more dangerous border crossings, the United States and Canada on Friday are expected to announce an agreement allowing both countries to block migrants from seeking asylum at unofficial points of entry.
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is hosting U.S. President Joe Biden Friday in Ottawa, where the leaders are expected to announce the deal. The agreement will allow Canada to turn back migrants at Roxham Road, a popular unofficial crossing between Clinton County, New York and Saint-Bernard-de-Lacolle, Quebec. Canada will also establish a new legal refugee program for 15,000 Latin American and Caribbean migrants.
Trudeau toldCNN Thursday that while Canada is "welcoming people from around the world," the country must "make sure we are doing it in responsible proper ways to continue to have our citizens positive towards immigration as Canadians always are."
"Everyone has the right to seek and to enjoy in other countries asylum from persecution."
However, Stéphanie Valois, president of the Quebec Association of Immigration Lawyers (AQAADI), asserted that refugees "should not be returned to a country where they face serious threats to their life or freedom."
"It seems completely counterproductive to me," she toldCBC.
The new deal is an amendment to the 2004 Safe Third Country Agreement (STCA), which compels migrants to claim asylum in the first "safe" country they reach, unless they qualify for certain exceptions. The STCA allows U.S. and Canadian authorities to turn away asylum-seekers at official border crossings—but not unofficial ones like Roxham Road.
François Legault, Quebec's center-right premier, has demanded that Trudeau's Liberal government resettle refugees in other Canadian provinces. Both Legault and Conservative Party Leader Pierre Poilievre have urged the closure of the Roxham Road crossing, which was used by 40,000 asylum-seekers to enter Canada last year.
"The intention behind the sudden announcement of this deal, which was negotiated in secret, is clear: To limit the ability of some of the world's most vulnerable people to find lifesaving protection in North America," Danilo Zak, associate director for policy and advocacy at Church World Service, an interdenominational Christian humanitarian group based in New York City, said in a statement.
"Time and time again, the Biden administration has taken steps to block the movement of people fleeing violence and persecution," he continued.
Zak added:
We should not stand by while policy after policy tears apart our nation's commitment to welcome. Given the assault on access to legal protection for the most vulnerable migrants arriving at our borders, it's questionable whether the United States still qualifies as a "safe third country." We urge President Biden to strongly reconsider this deal and to work with Congress to restore access to asylum and support policies that recognize the dignity of all those arriving at our borders.
Frantz André of the Comité d'Action des Sans Statut (Action Committee of the People without Status, or CAPSS) toldCityNews Montreal that "I'm afraid there might be some kind of a stampede before the closure of Roxham Road."
In a separate CBC interview, André said that "we're simply creating the worst scenario possible" for migrants.
Robert Weissman, president of the consumer advocacy group Public Citizen, pointed to Article 14 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, to which both Canada and the United States are signatories: "Everyone has the right to seek and to enjoy in other countries asylum from persecution."
Many Latin American and Caribbean migrants are fleeing poverty and political or criminal violence and repression in their home countries, some of it caused by decades of U.S. imperial policies and actions in the region. Others come from as far afield as Asia and the Middle East, including countries like Afghanistan and Yemen that have suffered from years or even decades of war waged or backed by the United States.
Keep ReadingShow Less
Most Popular
SUPPORT OUR WORK.
We are independent, non-profit, advertising-free and 100%
reader supported.
reader supported.