Satire: Contrary to what a post on Facebook suggests, soccer player Richarlison did not publish anything about a blackout in Amapá last Thursday (24), the day of Brazil’s debut in the 2022 World Cup. date, shortly before the match, but the tweet that appears in the verified content was made by the player in 2020, when Amapá was in the dark for 22 days. The publication is a satire.
investigated content🇧🇷 Facebook post brings an image of the back of soccer player Richarlison Andrade with a tweet from the athlete about a blackout in Amapá. “Unfortunately the people of Amapá will not be able to see my goal today because there has been no electricity for TWO WEEKS”, says part of the tweet. The content is accompanied by the caption “The guy doesn’t stop left” (sic).
where it was published: Facebook.
Conclusion of Comprova: The publication on Facebook that suggests that the player Richarlison tweeted about the blackout that occurred in Amapá in 2022 is a satire. The tweet refers to an episode in 2020, when the state was without electricity for 22 days.
Although Amapá recorded a power outage on November 24, 2022, the interruption began at 3 pm (one hour before the Brazilian team’s game) and returned about 1 hour later. On the opening day of Brazil, Richarlison made four publications on Twitter (1🇧🇷 two🇧🇷 3 and 4), all about the second goal scored by him.
already the tweet de Richarlison used in the disinformation piece was published on November 17, 2020, when Brazil played in the World Cup Qualifiers against Uruguay. In interview after the match, at the time, the player charged authorities about the lack of energy in Amapá, which had lasted two weeks.
Comprova classifies as satire memes, parodies and imitations published with the intention of making humor. We check satirical content when we realize that there are people taking it for real.
publication reach: Comprova investigates suspicious content with greater reach on social networks. Until the 28th of November, the post reached 12,000 likes, 457 comments and 3,000 shares.
What the person responsible for the publication says: The Menes de Esquerda page has 189,000 followers on Facebook and usually publishes satirical content about the left in Brazil. Comprova contacted the profile via message on the platform and, so far, has not received a response.
How do we check: We started the verification by searching Google for the keywords “Blackout in Amapá”, which resulted in journalistic reports about the blackout that occurred in the state in 2020 and also about the lack of electricity that affected 13 municipalities do Amapá on November 24 of this year.
Then we look for the tweet by Richarlison used in the disinformation piece and, by searching the keywords “Richarlison + apagão + Amapá”, we found an article from UOL 2020 on the subject. We also compared the player’s current Twitter profile picture with that of the investigated post using the tool Web.Archive.org🇧🇷
Amapá had a blackout during Brazil’s World Cup game
Amapá faced a blackout on November 24, 2022, registering lack of electricity in 13 of the 16 municipalities of State. Only the cities of Oiapoque, Laranjal do Jari and Vitória do Jari were not affected. The interruption was recorded one hour before Brazil’s debut in the World Cup, in which the selection beat Serbia with two goals by Richarlison.
According to an article published by G1, Energisa reported that an atmospheric discharge caused an interruption in the energy transmission network between Laranjal and Macapá. Distribution began to normalize around 4:12 pm on the 24th.
In November 2020, Amapá was without electricity for 20 days. According to G1, a fire on November 3 destroyed the transformer that brought electricity to most of the state’s population. After two total blackouts and 22 days of rotating supply, power was restored. Almost 90% of the population (about 765,000 people) were affected at the time.
The coincidence of Richarlison’s goals for the national team after the layoffs in Amapá led some Internet users from Amapá to associate the facts, as shown by the GE🇧🇷
Richarlison’s post is from 2020
Although Amapá suffered another blackout shortly before Brazil’s game in this year’s World Cup, the tweet de Richarlison used in the investigated content was posted at 10:32 am on November 17, 2020. On that date, the Brazilian team played against Uruguay in the Qatar World Cup Qualifying🇧🇷
Richarlison scored the team’s second goal of the match. After the game, in an interview organized by the Brazilian Football Confederation (CBF), the striker asked the authorities to take action in relation to Amapáwhich faced two weeks of blackouts and electricity instability.
“I wanted to dedicate this goal to all the people of Amapá, suffering a lot these days. As a Brazilian citizen, I ask the authorities to speak out, the people are suffering and could pay more attention. I ask you to look at it with affection, they are good citizens, they are fighting. Taxes are very expensive, food is very expensive, and now, this suffering. I hope they can resolve this ”, said the player, when he made the post, in 2020.
Furthermore, Richarlison’s Twitter profile picture is currently not the same as the one appearing in the misinformation piece. One print Screen carried out by the Web.Archive.org tool shows that the player used the photo that appears in the misleading post in 2020.
why do we investigate: Comprova investigates suspicious content that goes viral on social networks about the pandemic, public policies of the federal government and pieces that question the result of the presidential elections. The verified content makes fun of a serious situation that affected around 800,000 Brazilians. Comprova checks for satirical content when people who react to these posts understand them to be true.
Other checks on the topic: Comprova has already done other checks on the Amapá blackout in 2020, when images went viral insinuating that the Movement of Landless Rural Workers (MST) had destroyed the power station, causing the blackout in the state. As for the Brazilian team, it was found that the increased sponsorship for Neymar after he declared his support for Bolsonaro, and also that the player Vini Jr. did not declare support to the president.
Investigated by: Plural Curitiba, Estado de S.Paulo and Imirante.com; Verified by: Correio do Estado, Folha de S.Paulo, Metrópoles, CBN Cuiabá, A Gazeta and Uol
Source: CNN Brasil
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