Brazilian Government To Monitor Social Media To Counter Recent Riots

First time accepted submitter prxp writes "Recent riots in Brazil have taken the Brazilian Government completely by surprise, since most of its intelligence personnel have been assigned to work on the security of Fifa's Confederations Cup, according to 'O Estado de São Paulo' (Google translation), one of Brazil's major newspapers. This is particularly ironic, since protesting against the way Fifa has managed Confederations Cup in Brazil accompanied with overspending by the Brazilian Government is in the heart of these riots. Because of that, ABIN (the Brazilian equivalent to CIA) "has assembled a last minute operation to monitor the Internet" where intelligence officials have been tasked to monitor protesters' every move 'though Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and WhatsApp' in order to "anticipate itineraries and size of riots" among other intel. The legality of such action is unknown, since Brazilian laws prohibit this kind of wiretapping."

Comments

Your "background" and conclusions are wrong

[Camael]

stenvar says:

So, it's educated middle class people in the city protesting that politicians aren't giving them stuff cheaper and that politicians are wasting their money.

If you had done some proper research, you would have discovered that the "middle class" did not support the protest, it started off peacefully and only gained traction after abusive police crackdowns.

The marches began this month with a small protest in Sao Paulo against a small increase in bus and subway fares. The demonstrations initially drew the scorn of many middle-class Brazilians after protesters vandalized storefronts, subway stations and buses on one of the city's main avenues. But the movement quickly gained support and spread to other cities as police used heavy-handed tactics to try to quell the demonstrations. The biggest crackdown happened on Thursday in Sao Paulo when police fired rubber bullets and tear gas in clashes that injured more than 100 people, including 15 journalists, some of whom said they were deliberately targeted.

There's even a eyewitness report, together with pictures and videos of the police brutality by the poster "Canslli" here .

But the problem, again, was the government and it's police. They cowardly shot tear gas and rubber bullets on people who were peacefully protesting or just passing by (many reporters say that the police shot first, creating chaos)...

A journalist from Folha de São Paulo was hit in the eye by a rubber bullet while she was sitting on a sidewalk talking with some other journalists...

A lady who was just passing by, also hit by rubber bullets...

Protesters surrendering to the police, only to be shot after...

A homeless boy, that lives on one of the streets engulfed in chaos, was shot in the leg by a rubber bullet. Some people took him to a drugstore to receive treatment...

Here is a video of some people who were chanting "No Violence!" until the cops shot rubber bullets at them...

So while you sit safely at home smugly spinning lies to support your ideological war against the left, understand that there are real people with real issues who are bleeding and dying in the riots. At least respect that.

One of many currency war protests.

[FriendlyLurker]

If you do not get what the problem is, see: Stop bankers betting on food - What is the problem?.

Also on Brazil: Currency War Rattles Brazil, Wakes Up the People:

The spark that lit it – after price and asset inflation had made life too expensive for the middle class – was an increase in bus fares.

[Brazilian Finance Minister Guido Mantega] taken aim at the Fed’s “bold” efforts to hand trillions to the big players – the hot money – who didn’t invest it in production and jobs in the US but plowed it into every conceivable “asset class,” such as commodity and currency speculation and similar productive uses. It hit prices in Brazil and drove up the Real.

Brazil counterattacked last year. The Real plunged 24% against the buck. Prices of imported goods soared – adding to the inflation that had already been zigzagging up from 3.7% in 2007. In May, it hit a red-hot 6.45%.

It was just too much for the 40 million people who’d made the transition from poverty into (barely) the middle class since the turn of the millennium. Products they buy on a daily basis have jumped: tomatoes are up 96% over last year, onions 70%, rice 20%, chicken 23%. Since 2008, rents are up 118%.

Of course, bankers do what they like, own the politicians and sit on the board directly or indirectly of nearly ever major news source out there - so move along, no currency war to see here...

Ok, here is an account from someone from the riots

[Anonymous Coward]

Look, there are two things that must be kept in mind about how things works in Brazil.

1. The police _really_ doesn't know better. They are ill trained and scared of riots. This means it is rather easy to start a major mess unless specific pressure against the use of rubber shots/tear gas is issued. That explains what happened in the first days.

2. We have quite a large amount of bandits that are just waiting for an opportunity to strike. And I don't mean the government (although the description fits all the *four* "powers" in Brazil just fine: press, judiciary, executive and legislative).

Yesterday, there were hundreds of thousands protesting in my city. It was peaceful, it was beatifull, and the police was prepared ahead of time to NOT go bonkers. After the main body of people went home, malcontents and bandits decided to start destroying public buildings in order to create a diversion. Their objective is only to destroy in order to create enough of a mess to be able to pillage stores. The bus fare was ALREADY reduced from R$ 3.30 to R$ 3.00 in the previous day, so there really wasn't much of a reason to protest[1]

The end result? People injured, lots of property destruction, and the city I live in is a major mess. The police was told to not shot the criminals dead just in case there were decent people caught in the middle. In Rio de Janeiro, it was MUCH worse yesterday.

It will get worse.

The Summer of Riots has only begun.

[Remus Shepherd]

Doesn't everybody remember last year, when multiple reports came out from sociologists saying that food prices cause riots, and that food prices worldwide were expected to peak in the summer of 2013? Headlines like 'We have until August 2013 before riots sweep the globe', and 'We have one year before everything explodes' -- that doesn't ring a bell for anyone else?

Social unrest is correlated to the price of necessary commodities. When the poor cannot afford basic necessities, they have no choice but to get violent. Because of crop failures last year, this year is primed for social unrest EVERYWHERE.

The Arxiv paper demonstrating the correlation, based on data from the 2008 food riots.
An article warning us from last year. And another. And another.

Sociologists have known this was coming. Governments should have known this was coming. It's going to be a brutal, bloody summer. Get ready.