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Brazil’s Battle Against Fake News & the US War to Undermine it | Ep. 6
Posted
July 9, 2026
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1:18:31Now PlayingThis is really a tale of two countries: The United States and Brazil. In both countries, far-right presidents come to power — Donald Trump and Jair Bolsonaro. In both those countries, the presidents spent several years unraveling democratic institutions and public policy. Both presidents then ran for reelection. Both presidents lied about their country's voting systems in order to undermine the elections and whip up their base.
Both those president lost their reelections — Trump in 2020. Bolsonaro in 2022. They both claimed fraud and tried to carry out a coup to stay in power.
But that is where these two paths diverged. In the United States, president Donald Trump continued to peddle his lies about the elections. He created his own social media platform and he used it to push his agenda. He was reelected in 2024 and returned to power. In Brazil, however, the country’s Supreme Electoral Court blocked former president Jair Bolsonaro from running for office for 8 years, because of the lies he told about the country’s electoral system.
It wasn't censorship… it was a different interpretation of free speech. One that said the right to free expression must be balanced with the other rights in the country and the country’s democratic system. The United States doesn’t agree. And the Trump administration has been pushing to bend Brazil toward its definition of "free speech."
In this episode, co-host Michael Fox journeys to Brazil to understand the lengths that this country has gone to fight disinformation.
Michael is joined in the episode by Maximillian Alvarez, editor-in-chief and co-executive director of The Real News and the host of the Working People Podcast.
The Battle for Free Speech is a production of The Real News Network
Follow The Battle For Free Speech on YouTube, Spotify, or Apple Podcasts
Hosted by Michael Fox and Marc Steiner
Theme music by Michael Fox, Jordan Klein and Daniel Nuñez
Other music from Blue Dot Sessions and Epidemic Sound
Production and Sound Design by Michael Fox and Stephen Frank
Editorial support by Kayla Rivara
Research by Ben Schweiger
Guests:
Fabio de Sa e Silva
Artur Romeu
Fernando Paulino
Brian Mier
Transcript and show notes
#freespeech #brazil #bolsonaro #trump #democracy #january6 #disinformation
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