Uploaded November 2023 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
Disinformation was widespread during Brazil’s 2022 elections, but it’s hardly a new or location-specific phenomenon. This panel discussion examines the recent history of disinformation in Brazilian elections, and how we can apply the lessons learned from recent experience to other elections across the globe.
MODERATOR
Paulo Carvão is a Global Technology Executive with a record of leading large businesses at IBM, where he was a senior leadership team member until 2022. Since then, he has acted as a strategic advisor for technology and go-to-market issues, and is a Venture Capital Limited Partner and investment committee member. During his Social Impact fellowship at the Harvard Advanced Leadership Initiative, Paulo will focus on the intersection of technology and democracy.
PANELISTS
Maria Eduarda de Assis is a lawyer and Policy Advisor with expertise in Public and Digital Security, and its consequences for democracy. At the Igarape Institute in Brazil, she acts as a legal advisor and participates in advocacy efforts in the areas of public security, criminal justice, arms control, and civic space safeguarding. Maria Eduarda graduated from the University of the State of Rio de Janeiro (UERJ) School of Law. She began her career as a criminal lawyer and specialized in Criminal Law at the Center for Studies and Research in the Teaching of Law of the University of State of Rio de Janeiro (CEPED/UERJ). She is concluding her master degree in Human Rights Public Policies at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ). She is currently an LLM candidate at NYU School of Law. She is a co-author of “Disinformation Pulse: Reviewing the Impacts of Disinformation in Brazil’s 2022 Elections”.
David Nemer is an Associate Professor in the Departments of Media Studies and Anthropology at the University of Virginia. He is also the Interim Director of the Latin American Studies. Nemer is the author of Technology of the Oppressed (MIT Press, 2022) and Favela Digital: The other side of technology (Editora GSA, 2013). He was also a 22-23 Visiting Scholar at the Institute for Rebooting Social Media. He holds a MA in Anthropology from the University of Virginia, an MS in Computer Science from Saarland University, and a Ph.D. in Computing, Culture, and Society from Indiana University. Nemer has written for The Guardian, El País, The Huffington Post, Salon, and The Intercept.
Natalia Viana is the co-founder and executive director of Agência Pública, Brazil’s largest nonprofit investigative journalism outlet. She leads long-term investigations and multimedia projects about human rights violations and her team has won 70 awards for its excellence in journalism. A 2022 Nieman Fellow at Harvard, she dedicated her time to devise new ways of investigating and analyzing misinformation, bringing together knowledge from journalism and academia. Natalia led Agencia Publica’s coverage of the Brazil elections and its aftermath from the angle of disinformation campaigns. She is a board member of the Gabo Foundation, an organization founded by the Colombian writer Gabriel García Márquez dedicated to promoting better journalism, and of the Center of Media Integrity of the OAS.
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The Institute for Rebooting Social Media (RSM) is a three-year, “pop-up” research initiative at Harvard University's Berkman Klein Center to accelerate progress towards addressing social media’s most urgent problems, including misinformation, privacy breaches, harassment, and content governance. By convening participants across industry, government, civil society, and academia in focused, time-bound collaboration, the Institute has a portfolio of research, projects, programming, and educational opportunities aimed at improving the state of digital social spaces. Learn more about RSM here: rebootingsocialmedia.org
Be sure to also check out the brand new Applied Social Media Lab (ASML),
which gives industry-trained technologists the freedom to build social media solutions that center the public interest. Learn more about ASML and our open jobs here: https://asml.cyber.harvard.edu/
Follow us!
X (formerly known as Twitter): twitter.com/TheLabBKC
Instagram: instagram.com/thelabbkc
Disinformation was widespread during Brazil’s 2022 elections, but it’s hardly a new or location-specific phenomenon. This panel discussion examines the recent history of disinformation in Brazilian elections, and how we can apply the lessons learned from recent experience to other elections across the globe.
MODERATOR
Paulo Carvão is a Global Technology Executive with a record of leading large businesses at IBM, where he was a senior leadership team member until 2022. Since then, he has acted as a strategic advisor for technology and go-to-market issues, and is a Venture Capital Limited Partner and investment committee member. During his Social Impact fellowship at the Harvard Advanced Leadership Initiative, Paulo will focus on the intersection of technology and democracy.
PANELISTS
Maria Eduarda de Assis is a lawyer and Policy Advisor with expertise in Public and Digital Security, and its consequences for democracy. At the Igarape Institute in Brazil, she acts as a legal advisor and participates in advocacy efforts in the areas of public security, criminal justice, arms control, and civic space safeguarding. Maria Eduarda graduated from the University of the State of Rio de Janeiro (UERJ) School of Law. She began her career as a criminal lawyer and specialized in Criminal Law at the Center for Studies and Research in the Teaching of Law of the University of State of Rio de Janeiro (CEPED/UERJ). She is concluding her master degree in Human Rights Public Policies at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ). She is currently an LLM candidate at NYU School of Law. She is a co-author of “Disinformation Pulse: Reviewing the Impacts of Disinformation in Brazil’s 2022 Elections”.
David Nemer is an Associate Professor in the Departments of Media Studies and Anthropology at the University of Virginia. He is also the Interim Director of the Latin American Studies. Nemer is the author of Technology of the Oppressed (MIT Press, 2022) and Favela Digital: The other side of technology (Editora GSA, 2013). He was also a 22-23 Visiting Scholar at the Institute for Rebooting Social Media. He holds a MA in Anthropology from the University of Virginia, an MS in Computer Science from Saarland University, and a Ph.D. in Computing, Culture, and Society from Indiana University. Nemer has written for The Guardian, El País, The Huffington Post, Salon, and The Intercept.
Natalia Viana is the co-founder and executive director of Agência Pública, Brazil’s largest nonprofit investigative journalism outlet. She leads long-term investigations and multimedia projects about human rights violations and her team has won 70 awards for its excellence in journalism. A 2022 Nieman Fellow at Harvard, she dedicated her time to devise new ways of investigating and analyzing misinformation, bringing together knowledge from journalism and academia. Natalia led Agencia Publica’s coverage of the Brazil elections and its aftermath from the angle of disinformation campaigns. She is a board member of the Gabo Foundation, an organization founded by the Colombian writer Gabriel García Márquez dedicated to promoting better journalism, and of the Center of Media Integrity of the OAS.
****
The Institute for Rebooting Social Media (RSM) is a three-year, “pop-up” research initiative at Harvard University's Berkman Klein Center to accelerate progress towards addressing social media’s most urgent problems, including misinformation, privacy breaches, harassment, and content governance. By convening participants across industry, government, civil society, and academia in focused, time-bound collaboration, the Institute has a portfolio of research, projects, programming, and educational opportunities aimed at improving the state of digital social spaces. Learn more about RSM here: rebootingsocialmedia.org
Be sure to also check out the brand new Applied Social Media Lab (ASML),
which gives industry-trained technologists the freedom to build social media solutions that center the public interest. Learn more about ASML and our open jobs here: https://asml.cyber.harvard.edu/
Follow us!
X (formerly known as Twitter): twitter.com/TheLabBKC
Instagram: instagram.com/thelabbkc
