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Facebook: Study finds 643 fake ads about Desenrola Brasil and Voa Brasil

EXTRA - October 10, 2024



A survey found that 643 false advertisements about the Desenrola Brasil and Voa Brasil programs were published on Facebook and Instagram in July and August of this year. The data released by the UFRJ Internet and Social Network Studies Laboratory (Netlab) is particularly noteworthy because the government program aimed at debt renegotiation ended in May.


According to the study, 354 (55%) false advertisements used the name Voa Brasil, starting on July 25. On the other hand, 289 fraudulent publications referring to Desenrola Brasil were made since the 7th of the same month. With 157 false advertisements, the last week of July recorded the highest number of publications related to the two social programs.


The volume of fraudulent advertisements, however, may be even higher, since it is not possible to access the complete history of these publications. Rose Marie Santini, director and founder of Netlab UFRJ, explains that the restriction occurs because Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram, has not classified ads related to the two government programs as political, electoral or socially relevant ads — the only category whose collection is made available by the group.


– Meta determines that content classified as political be placed in a repository for seven years with precise data on the advertiser's name, the profile of the target audience and the amounts paid for the ad. The company's strategy appears to have been to stop categorizing Desenrola ads as political, that is, they are no longer stored for consultation. As a result, the ads disappear as soon as they are taken off the air – says Santini.



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