Prosecutor’s Office of Brazil denies that it intends to investigate Bolsonaro’s followers

The Brazilian prosecutor’s office He denied this Tuesday that he intends to investigate the admirers of the former president Jair Bolsonaro after the lawyers of the far-right leader alleged that the Public Ministry promotes political persecution by requesting the list of his followers on social networks.

The Prosecutor’s Office, in a statement in which it referred to the request it made to the Supreme Court to access the data related to Bolsonaro’s followers on social networks, clarified that “these people are not being investigated nor will their data be exposed”.

LOOK HERE: Brazil: Prosecutor’s Office asks Meta and Twitter for a compilation of Bolsonaro’s messages on coup assault

The note refers to the request that the Public ministry filed before the highest court on Monday to compel social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, instagram and TikTok to be given the “complete list with names and identification data of the followersof the former president.

The petition was presented within the framework of the investigation opened by the Prosecutor’s Office to try to identify the masterminds of the January 8 attempt, when thousands of Bolsonaro members stormed the offices of the Presidency, Congress and the Supreme Court in an attempt to force a coup against the president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.

Before the “unusual” petition, the lawyers of the far-right leader, in an appeal presented this Tuesday before the Supreme Federal Courtalleged that the Prosecutor’s Office intends to promote a “political surveillance” and one “ideological persecution”.

The former president’s defense described the request as “a poorly disguised form of political surveillance of the followers of the former president who can provoke a hateful and anachronistic form of ideological persecution”.

The Prosecutor’s Office also requested that the social networks deliver reports on all the publications that Bolsonaro made on issues such as elections, electronic ballot boxes, the electoral court and the armed forces, as well as lists of those who read them, those who supported them and those who commented on them. , and the comments they generated.

These are requestsabsolutely unusual and seriously offending” the “most essential values ​​of freedom of opinion and expression”, assured the defense of the former president.

The Prosecutor’s Office, in its clarification note, stated that it is only investigating Bolsonaro and that the objective of his request “is to obtain information that allows evaluating the content and dimension reached by the former president’s publications on social networks about the events that occurred on January 8”.

Quoted in the statement, the deputy attorney general of the Republic and responsible for the investigations into the attempted coup, Carlos Frederico Santosclaimed that it is “necessary to measure the impact of the publications and the respective scope”.

MORE INFORMATION: The speech of Eduardo Bolsonaro that will be analyzed by the Federal Police at the request of the Minister of Justice

“I would never go and investigate millions of people, even because it would be impossible to do that.”, added the deputy attorney, who admitted that, among Bolsonaro’s followers on social networks, in addition to his admirers, there are curious, journalists and academics who follow him for professional and various reasons.

The far-right leader is being investigated as a possible instigator of the attempt for having questioned the reliability of the ballot boxes and the electoral system throughout the electoral campaign in which he was defeated by Lula, and for having refused to acknowledge his defeat in the elections.

Source: Elcomercio

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I am Jack Morton and I work in 24 News Recorder. I mostly cover world news and I have also authored 24 news recorder. I find this work highly interesting and it allows me to keep up with current events happening around the world.