New Research Shows Facebook Enabling Insurrection in Brazil: “Insurrection Index ‘’ Analysis Shows System Blinking Red on Three Key Warning Signs

February 2 — New research today from Avaaz and the Real Facebook Oversight Board warned that Brazil is at increased risk of a “1/6 like event fomented on Facebook,” with Facebook failing to learn from or correct errors from the U.S. insurrection that could put the results of Brazil’s October 2nd election in peril. The research and the new “Insurrection Enablement Index,” are featured in RFOB’s latest Quarterly Harms Report, released as Facebook meets to share their Q4 earnings.

Earlier research from the international global rights organization Avaaz showed that Facebook could have prevented up to 10 billion estimated views on the Pages and Groups that repeatedly shared misinformation on Brazilian politics and news. Now with a Presidential election eight months away, the situation is grim. Avaaz writes —

Facebook is again delaying action, and the consequences could be even more dire than the insurrection in the US. Brazil is a young democracy and has weaker institutional checks and balances when compared to the United States. Moreover, with efforts underway to radicalize Brazilian security forces, the chances of violent clashes run high. Moreover, vulnerable communities in Brazil, such as the indigenous communities across the Amazon, face significant threats as this rhetoric escalates.

RFOB and Avaaz have developed a new tool, the Insurrection Enablement Index, to categorize and identify early warning signs that Facebook could be used to incite a violent insurrection in the run-up to any global democratic event. The index ranks Facebook’s performance in nations based on five key factors:

• Context-specific, culturally competent human moderation in place
• Equal application of terms and conditions for all users
• Prioritization of reputable media sources in the delivery of news content
• Robust, rapid response fact-checking in place for claims made by candidates
• Mitigation measures in place to limit the spread of content likely to pose significant offline harm at scale

On three of the five — the last three — research ranks Brazil red, or high risk.

“Facebook’s Q4 earnings should reflect a company that has pushed democracies to the brink, gaslit its own irrelevant oversight board, greenwashed at COP and launched a desperate rebrand,” said a spokesperson for the Real Facebook Oversight Board. “Sadly, they likely will not. The Insurrection Enablement Index shows that Facebook is just getting started fomenting 1/6 style events on their platforms. This research is a warning sign — to Brazil but more importantly the world that Facebook’s platforms are out of control.

An additional analysis from Real Facebook Oversight Board included in the Quarterly Harms aggregated and analyzed a quarter's worth of Facebook “Top Ten Posts” from Kevin Roose, showing that the reputable information ecosystem on Facebook is still riddled with known disinformers. In Q4 2021, 62% of #1 News Posts and 49 % of Top 10 News Posts were from known disinformers.

“The Real Facebook Oversight Board’s latest Quarterly Harms Report underscores the continuing threat posed by Facebook to democracies around the world,” said Roger McNamee, early Facebook investor, author of Zucked and a Real Facebook Oversight Board member. “The company’s relentless pursuit of profit remains a clear and present danger.”

Responding to the research on Brazil, RFOB member Marietje Schaake, International Policy Director at the Stanford Policy Director and a former member of the EU Parliament urged Facebook to act:

“The peaceful transfer of power through a trusted process, respecting the democratic rights of people, is a delicate and hard-fought achievement. Yet democracy has been in steady decline over the past decade. It is vital that companies that curate news, access to information and the context for much of the democratic debate take their responsibility. We call on Facebook to invest more in their local teams, into transparency and involving external experts, in the run up to a series of elections with global ripple effects on where democracy will be a year from now. A lot is at stake!”

“Facebook has again and again shown its unwillingness to substantively deal with the harms of its platform, with misinformation, in particular, being a major one. Governments and policymakers across the world should urgently implement effective policies to encourage digital and media literacy,” said Phumzile Van Damme, Misinformation Combating and Policy Specialist, Behavioural Science and RFOB member. “Studies have shown that this goes some way in protecting online users against misinformation. Greater global collaboration and diplomacy is needed to tackle what is the crisis of our times, and one Facebook has demonstrated not caring enough about — misinformation.”

RFOB recently co-sponsored an event calling on Facebook to release its long-delayed human rights assessment in India, another nation where Facebook’s platforms have fomented violence, hatred and political discord.

Read the full Quarterly Harms Report here.

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Statements and releases do not reflect the individual positions of all Real Facebook Oversight Board Members. Contact us at media@the-citizens.com.