🇧🇷🏛💥🖥 — CENSORSHIP ADVANCES IN BRAZIL: The Communication Committee of the Chamber of Deputies has approved the substitute text to Bill 1380/25, which amends the Civil Rights Framework for the Internet and establishes mandatory facial recognition for access to social media in Brazil

💬 The goal, according to the bill’s author, Congressman Jorge Goetten (Republicanos-SC), is “to strengthen account security and combat the spread of fake profiles, which are often linked to defamation, harassment, cyberbullying, and financial scams.”

🚫 Users who do not complete facial re-registration within one year after the law takes effect will have their accounts blocked. The substitute text also defines biometric data and facial recognition, aligning the proposal with the General Data Protection Law (LGPD).

❗️ However, international experiences show that similar measures can pose serious risks to privacy and freedom of expression. In the United Kingdom, for example, the use of facial recognition in public spaces and digital platforms faced strong backlash after several data leaks and security breaches. In 2020, the case of the company Clearview AI, which collected billions of user images without consent, exposed the fragility of such systems and led to investigations by the UK’s Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO).

➡️ In addition to the risk of mass data exposure, mandatory biometric verification could lead to excessive control over access to information. In contexts of high digital surveillance, there is a danger that facial monitoring could be used to track behavior and restrict content, creating a scenario of indirect censorship and limitation of freedom on the internet.

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🇻🇪💰🇨🇴🇧🇷🇦🇷🇧🇴🇪🇸 — URGENT: Hugo “El Pollo” Carvajal, former intelligence chief during the governments of Hugo Chávez and Nicolás Maduro, confessed before U.S. justice that the regime illegally financed Gustavo Petro, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, Néstor Kirchner, Evo Morales, Podemos, and others using PDVSA funds to export its ideological agenda

⚖️ This information comes as part of his cooperation with U.S. authorities, in which he seeks a reduction in his sentence on charges related to drug trafficking and narco-terrorism.

⛓ Extradited to the United States in 2023 after evading justice in Spain for two years, Carvajal pleaded guilty on June 25 before a New York court to four crimes linked to the Cartel of the Suns, a criminal network within the Venezuelan Armed Forces classified as a terrorist organization by Washington.

🚩 According to his statements, the state oil company PDVSA was the main vehicle for channeling funds to political campaigns, aligned media, and ideological projects abroad. In previous testimony before Spanish justice, while detained in Madrid, he stated that “the Venezuelan government has illegally financed leftist political movements around the world for at least 15 years.”

🛠 Among the beneficiaries mentioned by Carvajal are prominent leaders and parties: Néstor Kirchner in Argentina, Evo Morales in Bolivia, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva in Brazil, Fernando Lugo in Paraguay, Ollanta Humala in Peru, Manuel Zelaya in Honduras, Gustavo Petro in Colombia, the Five Star Movement in Italy, and Podemos in Spain. “All of them were recipients of money sent by the Venezuelan government,” the former general asserted in his statements.

🇮🇹 One specific case highlighted by Carvajal involves Italy’s Five Star Movement (M5S), founded by Beppe Grillo. According to his testimony, the Chavista regime transferred 3.5 million euros in cash to Gianroberto Casaleggio, the group’s ideologue, via diplomatic pouch. This operation, executed by Tareck El Aissami (then Interior Minister) and approved by Nicolás Maduro as Foreign Minister, was replicated in other countries, including financing for Podemos and the Kirchners.

🇻🇪 Carvajal emphasized that this strategy of international financial support continues under Maduro’s rule, who maintained the practice since his time as Foreign Minister.

🇺🇸 His cooperation with the United States has intensified recently, with the expectation that the documentary evidence provided will lead to a lighter sentence and possibly reduced prison time.

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