Pablo Marçal, candidate for mayor of São Paulo, used non-traditional – and illegal – methods as a campaign strategy. The influencer offered cash prizes to third parties in order to encourage the sharing of cuts of his videos on social networks.
why was he banned?
It is not difficult to see that electoral campaigns are allowed in the country, especially at election time. However, there are limits: Brazilian law condemns the payment of political promotion advertisements when promoted by someone other than the candidate, or his party. Exactly the case of Pablo Marçal, who paid other people for the videos with most views.
“Since you don’t want to learn how to be rich, at least you’re going to cut my videos for you to earn R$10,000”, he admits in a video, published the previous year, on his TikTok.
For this reason, on August 23, 2024, the Electoral Court of São Paulo (TRE-SP) ordered the takedown of Pablo Marçal’s profiles on social networks.
It is worth remembering that the decision was not taken just on the initiative of the Court, but meets the request of the PSB, Tabata’s Amaral party, also candidate for mayor.
This wasn’t the only request requested against the influencer. Electoral prosecutor Fabiano Augusto Petean, representative of the Electoral Public Ministry (MPE), asked the Court to suspend the registration of Marçal’s candidacy. He also requested the disclose of tax and baking records of the former coach’s companies. In case of conviction, the PRTB candidate can be ineligible for eight years.
CENSORSHIP?
When searching for Pablo Marçal’s former user on Instagram, the user comes across the message “Sorry, this page isn’t available. The link you followed may be broken, or the page may have been removed”, with a black-and-white image of the candidate, who has his mouth covered by a ribbon with the word “system”.
It is not difficult to understand the narrative created by Marçal: a politician persecuted by the system, or rather, censored by it.The truth is that the businessman was not censored, TRE-SP vetoed only the profiles that sought to monetize the candidate’s cuts. The candidate even created a reserve account on Instagram that already has more than five million followers.
DID IT WORK?
Even though Pablo Marçal created a new account, and even distorted reality into a narrative of persecution, which made him gain more followers, the suspension of Marçal’s profiles was effective and necessary according to the law.
Illegal actions – such as a “contest” scheme to cut videos in which users who go viral are rewarded – are often not generally known.
The takedown of the former coach’s profiles, in addition to alerting voters about attitudes promoted by the candidates for mayor of the city, leave the population on alert not only with Marçal’s online behavior, but that of everyone else.
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The article above was edited by Giulia El Houssami.
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