SAO PAULO (AP) 鈥� While flooding that has devastated Brazil鈥檚 Rio Grande do Sul state has yet to subside, another scourge has spread across the region: disinformation on social media that has hampered desperate efforts to get aid to hundreds of thousands in need.
Among fake postings that have stirred outrage: That official agencies aren't conducting rescues in Brazil's southernmost state. That bureaucracy is holding up donations of food, water and clothing. One persistent rumor contends that authorities are concealing hundreds of corpses, said Jairo Jorge, mayor of the hard-hit city of Canoas.
Jorge and other officials say hidden actors behind the postings are exploiting the crisis to undermine trust in government.
Ary Vanazzi, mayor of Sao Leopoldo, said many people ignored official warnings and instead heeded social media posts saying government alerts 鈥渨ere just politicians trying to alarm people.鈥�
"Because of that, many didn鈥檛 leave their homes in this emergency. Some might have died because of it,鈥� Vanazzi told The Associated Press. 鈥淪ometimes we spend more time defending against lies than working to help our population.鈥�
Floods over the past two weeks have killed at least 149 people, and more than 100 remain missing, state authorities said Wednesday. More than 600,000 people have been forced from their homes.
Brazil became a ahead of the 2018 election won by . During his presidency, adversaries often found themselves fending off digital onslaughts. The Supreme Court has since launched one of the world鈥檚 most aggressive efforts to stamp out coordinated disinformation campaigns, who is overseeing an investigation into the spread of false news. He has ordered social media platforms to remove dozens of accounts.
The army was spared online mudslinging during the presidency of Bolsonaro, a former captain who is a fierce opponent of his successor, Luiz In谩cio Lula da Silva. But it has become a target for far-right hostility under Lula, with social media users attacking military leaders for taking orders from the leftist president, said Alexandre Arag茫o, executive editor of fact-checking agency Aos Fatos.
Several videos posted online insinuate soldiers aren鈥檛 participating in rescues. Others mock soldiers鈥� supposed lack of equipment, using footage of a truck stuck in floodwaters. The general who leads the army鈥檚 southern command told CNN Brasil that one rumor claimed he was responsible for nonexistent deaths inside a hospital.
The army says it and local agencies deployed 31,000 soldiers, police and others to rescue more than 69,000 people and 10,000 animals and deliver tons of aid by air and boats. Brazil鈥檚 federal government announced it will spend nearly 51 billion reais ($10 billion) on recovery, provide credit to farmers and small companies and suspend the state鈥檚 11-billion-reais annual debt service.
鈥淭hese reports are disturbing, because they do not reflect reality,鈥� the command said in a statement to the AP. 鈥淢any active military were also victims of these floods. Many soldiers have lost their homes after the rains and remain on the front lines helping the population.鈥�
Prodded by complaints from military brass, Brazil鈥檚 government is appealing to social media platforms to stop the spread of misinformation, Attorney General Jorge Messias said in an interview.
As of late Tuesday, all had expressed willingness to cooperate 鈥� except X, according to Messias' office. The platform's owner, Elon Musk, a Supreme Court justice鈥檚 decisions to restrict users鈥� accounts, accusing him of muzzling free speech and drawing and his allies. X didn't immediately respond to an email requesting comment.
Messias鈥� office also filed a lawsuit against a social media influencer who claimed that a single businessman 鈥� and staunch Bolsonaro supporter 鈥� dispatched more aircraft to aid rescue efforts than the entire Brazilian air force. The government is demanding the right to reply on the Instagram profile of the influencer, Pablo Mar莽al, an outspoken critic of Lula with nearly 10 million followers.
The swarm of disinformation at a time of crisis amounts to a 鈥渢ragedy within a tragedy,鈥� Messias said. 鈥淲hen we stop everything to respond to fake news, we鈥檙e diverting public resources and energy away from what really matters, which is serving the public.鈥�
Nearly one-third of people surveyed by pollster Quaest reported they were exposed to false news about the floods, according to the poll conducted from May 2-6. Conducted in 120 cities nationwide, it had a margin of error of 2.2 percentage points.
Disinformation is creating a hostile environment for aid workers. Locals have accused state and municipal agents of acting too slowly and threatened to expose them online, and yelled at firefighters over reports they'd failed to rescue people and pets, according to according to the mayors of Sao Leopoldo and Canoas. Some people pretending to be volunteers entered a warehouse of the state's civil defense agency last week, filming aid donations inside and posting video online as supposed evidence of its failure to distribute the aid, according to the agency.
Last week, another falsehood contended authorities were halting trucks with donations, said Arag茫o. It was fueled by broadcaster SBT鈥檚 story about a truck stopped for inspection that, despite being overloaded, was later released. Social media posts distorted that report and claimed aid stoppages are a widespread phenomenon. The case was demonstrative, Arag茫o added.
鈥淲hen there is a tragedy with the dimensions of what happened in Rio Grande do Sul, of course there will be isolated cases of absurd things,鈥� he said by phone from Sao Paulo. 鈥淪ocial media sells those real and isolated cases as though they represent official protocol.鈥�
Janine Bargas has been working nonstop on the disaster as a professor at the Federal University of Health Sciences of Porto Alegre in the state capital. Initially, her duties included providing reliable information, such as telling people where they could find needed medication.
Misinformation became so intense that her job now includes monitoring and debunking it. That has included recommendations for a bogus preventive treatment for a waterborne bacterial disease.
鈥淭he same anti-vaccine doctors who were recommending chloroquine during COVID started promoting a prophylaxis for leptospirosis,鈥� Bargas told the AP, adding that panic over the reports erupted in a shelter managed by university staff. 鈥淧eople started fighting, asking for the medication. And this medication鈥檚 dosage can be very toxic for the liver."
Jorge, the mayor of Canoas, became a target of disinformation just hours after the floods began. A post, shared millions of times on messaging apps, showed a brawl it said took place at a shelter in Canoas because of a decree that all donations pass through City Hall. The brawl actually took place in Ceara state, on the opposite side of the vast country, and Jorge issued no such decree.
The falsehoods are 鈥渙rchestrated, aimed at making people stop believing in public agents,鈥� he said. 鈥淲henever a natural disaster happens, there鈥檚 a wave of solidarity. But not this time; there鈥檚 also a wave of anger caused by disinformation.鈥�
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Mauricio Savarese And Gabriela S谩 Pessoa, The Associated Press
