Digital Democracy Room is presented to OAS observers

FGV’s Department of Public Policy Analysis (DAPP) welcomed members of the Electoral Observation Mission of the Organization of American States (EOM/OAS), led by former President of Costa Rica, Laura Chinchilla Miranda, on October 3. This mission is monitoring the elections in Brazil for the first time and its members visited the Department to observe the role of social media in the electoral process this year. The DAPP analyzed the political debate on social media and the impact of bots and disinformation on the elections, monitored by the Digital Democracy Room #observa2018. This information can help identify bottlenecks and potential opportunities to strengthen the continent’s democracies, as emphasized by Gerardo de Icaza, Director of the Department of Electoral Cooperation and Observation of the OAS: “I would like to congratulate Fundação Getulio Vargas for its Digital Democracy Room initiative. The Electoral Observation Mission of the OAS received a truly impressive presentation, analyzing the information and misinformation on social media regarding the 2018 elections.  As we can see, social media is not the future, but the present of election campaigns. All information delivered will be valued by the Electoral Observation Mission”, said Icaza. The mission will be present in 12 Brazilian states: Bahia, Ceará, Maranhão, Pernambuco, Amazonas, Pará, Minas Gerais, Rio de Janeiro, Sao Paulo, Paraná, Rio Grande do Sul and Santa Catarina, in addition to a group that will observe from abroad. Check out the Digital Democracy Room.