False: It is false that 5.1 million votes were stolen from President Jair Bolsonaro (PL) in the second round of the 2022 elections, which had Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT) as the winner. The allegation was made on video by American businessman Michael Lindell, featured in the disinformation content as a journalist. He is linked to the Bolsonaro family and the recording was shared by other supporters of the president. Lindell is also investigated in the United States in the action of invading the Capitol (North American Congress). In Brazil, the Electoral Justice confirmed the result of the election that gave Lula the victory and denied the accusation of theft.
Investigated Content🇧🇷 Video with an alarmist description suggests a threat to national sovereignty, claiming that alleged journalist Mike Lindell told an American TV station that about 5 million Bolsonaro votes were stolen through electronic voting machines.
where it was published: Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
Completion of Proof: The claim that 5.1 million votes were stolen from Jair Bolsonaro (PL) in the dispute for the Presidency of Brazil, won on October 30 by his opponent Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT) is false. The statement was made by the American businessman and CEO of the My Pillow company, Michael Lindell, presented in the content investigated here as a journalist.
Lindell’s statements were reproduced by Bolsonaro supporters on social media, but there is no proof of the alleged theft. The businessman makes conjectures about the electronic voting machines, refuting their safety, and says that corrupt judges did not allow the printing of votes. Lindell’s statements follow the line of the president and his supporters, who often attack the Brazilian electoral system with false and misleading content, as Comprova has already demonstrated in checks on elections, such as those published in August 15th and october 6thBesides explain the functioning and inspection of the source code of the equipment that attests to its integrity.
The businessman, who has close contact with at least one of Bolsonaro’s sons, federal deputy Eduardo Bolsonaro (PL-SP), is known in the United States for supporting former president Donald Trump. He was even involved in acts that also questioned the outcome of the American presidential election, won in 2020 by Joe Biden. Lindell is investigated in the process of breaking into the Capitol (United States Congress).
Here, the Superior Electoral Court (TSE) confirmed the result, giving Lula victory on the same day of the second round vote and also published, on the body’s website, an article belying the video content.
Falsefor Comprova, is content invented or edited to change its original meaning and deliberately disclosed to spread a falsehood.
Scope of publication: Comprova investigates suspicious content with the greatest reach on social networks. On Twitter, until November 9, one of the publications had more than 49 thousand likes, while on Facebook it reached 17 thousand views. The content has been deleted from Instagram.
What does the publisher say?: The author was contacted by social networks, but did not return the messages until the verification was completed.
How do we check: First, we use a translation resource to analyze the speech of the alleged American journalist who appears in the video and then we find where the video was published. Thus, it was possible to identify that it was not a journalistic article, but a video of businessman Michael Lindell published on his own platform, called “Frank”.
Searching for Lindell’s name on Google, the first results point to “Mike Lindell Bolsonaro”, “Mike Lindell rumble Brazil” and “Mike Lindell Brazil Bolsonaro”, indicating the relationship with the Brazilian president. In news from North American vehicles, it was possible to identify the history of the businessman’s discourse against the results of the elections in the United States.
In addition, we sought clarification from Itamaraty and the Regional Electoral Court of the Federal District (TRE-DF), responsible for carrying out voting abroad. We also contacted the author of the post, but there was no response.
There is no evidence in the vote stealing video
Author of the statements in the shared video, businessman Michael Lindell does not present evidence of the alleged theft of votes in the Brazilian elections for president, despite claiming that there was fraud. Lindell only mentions that President Jair Bolsonaro and his son Eduardo claimed the paper printing of votes for an audit, which would have been rejected by the Justice.
“I am a friend of theirs, their son Eduardo Bolsonaro. His father is president there and they tried to put paper (…). You would push a button and print a paper so you could do an audit, which was rejected by the corrupt judges”, says Lindell in one of the excerpts.
The unconstitutionality of the printing of votes had already been manifested by the Justice, in 2013, as shown by the check in a check in July of this year, but the most recent decision was taken in the National Congress. On August 10, 2021, the Chamber of Deputies rejected the Proposed Amendment to the Constitution (PEC) 135/2019, which proposed printing votes from electronic voting machines, by 229 votes against 218, in addition to one abstention.
In the video, Michael Lindell claims that his “cyber guys” (cyberguys, in English) would have followed the Brazilian elections to justify the information that votes were stolen. He does not explain how this observation would have been made, and he does not say who these alleged employees were. However, access to electronic voting machines through cybernetic means, as well as their monitoring through online means, is not possible, since the equipment is not linked to the internet and cannot be accessed over the network.
Michael Lindell is not a journalist
Appointed in the content investigated here as a journalist, the author of the statements about alleged stolen votes, Michael Lindell is, in fact, businessman and CEO of My Pillow, a pillow production company, based in Minnesota.
He is a personality known for being an ally of former President Donald Trump and having questioned the result of the 2020 elections in the United States, when Trump, who was running for re-election, lost to Joe Biden. Lindell is one of those investigated by the US Justice in a case of violation of voting in the state of Colorado, in a possible attempt to interfere in the results of the elections.
the FBI apprehended Lindell’s cell phone in September of this year as a result of the investigations. According to the CNN Politcsfrom the United States, authorities were looking for evidence of possible crimes or conspiracies of identity theft and intentional damage to a protected computer, between the end of 2020 and the beginning of 2021. Lindell filed a lawsuit in an attempt to recover the cell phone, stating that there were illegalities in the procedure, but had the request rejected by the federal judge Eric Tostrudon 3 November.
Lindell is also involved in investigations into the invasion of the capitol, on January 6, 2021, by Trump supporters. The entrepreneur already stated who did not participate in the attack on the session that confirmed Biden’s victory, but admitted that he was at the former president’s rally before the episode began.
On the same date, Eduardo Bolsonaro posted a photo with Michael Lindell, in Washington, as reported by the newspaper. The globe🇧🇷 The special committee of the United States House created to investigate the invasion came to mention Eduardo’s name as possible investigated.
Video was not released in the American press.
Contrary to what the viral video suggests, the content was not covered by the press. The video was played on the website Frank: the voice of free speech with the title “At least 5,000,000 votes stolen in the Brazilian election”. Brazilian elections), on 2 November.
the platform it was launched by Michael Lindell himself, in April 2021, with the aim of competing with YouTube and Twitter, a social network that had permanently banned the account of the businessman for spreading false content about the last US presidential election.
why do we investigate: Comprova investigates suspicious content that goes viral on social media about the pandemic, public policies of the federal government and presidential elections. After a campaign in which many false and misleading content circulated against candidates, pieces of disinformation are still used as a resource to question the electoral system, questioning from the electronic voting machines to the performance of the Justice. Demonstrations in this sense, with unfounded allegations, serve only to try to undermine the credibility of the process and achieve democracy.
Other checks on the topic: The Electoral Justice itself classified the content investigated here as rumor🇧🇷 In addition to this episode, after the result of the second round, other pieces of disinformation tried to cast doubt on the electoral process. Comprova showed, for example, that it was false request for arrest in flagrante delicto for Minister Alexandre de Moraesjust as it was a lie that American journalist had proved Biden’s influence on Brazilian elections is that woman making the “L” with her hands was a TSE employee🇧🇷
Investigated by: Estado de S.Paulo, A Gazeta and Poder 360; Verified by: Plural Curitiba, Folha de S.Paulo, Correio Braziliense, NSC Comunicação e Metrópoles
Source: CNN Brasil
