Just minutes after Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva’s victory in the 2022 elections was confirmed, justice Alexandre de Moraes’s shadow cabinet celebrated the “victory against disinformation.” This revelry occurred within a group chat comprised of representatives from the Instituto Democracia em Xeque (Democracy in Check Institute), one of the key partners tasked with monitoring social media for the Superior Electoral Court (TSE).
Message exchanges, exclusively obtained by Oeste magazine, reveal that at 8:07 PM on October 30, 2022, Fabiano Garrido of Democracy in Check congratulated the Electoral Court for its “relentless work in defense of democracy.”
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In response, Marco Antônio Vargas, then an auxiliary judge to Alexandre de Moraes, wrote: “Thank you very much for your work, without which we would not have been able to overcome disinformation.” Subsequently, Vitor de Andrade Monteiro, at the time an international affairs advisor to the Secretary-General’s Office of the TSE Presidency, sent a similar message: “Thank you very much for all the support in this very difficult task of combating disinformation.”
The final message came from Beto Vasques, also from Democracy in Check: “Long live the Electoral Justice. Long live Democracy. Long live the sovereign people. Long live Brazil!”
Approximately an hour later, Beto Vasques circulated an “extraordinary bulletin” celebrating Lula’s victory. In the message, he asserted that voters for the Workers’ Party (PT) candidate and supporters of the “broad front for democracy” were celebrating the outcome. He further highlighted that media outlets considered right-wing at the time, such as O Antagonista and Jovem Pan, were already reporting on the election. Finally, he noted that “far-right figures” remained silent and concluded the message with: “Long live democracy!”
Moraes’s Shadow Cabinet Aided Social Media Monitoring
As revealed by Oeste, Thiago Rondon, then a collaborating analyst for the TSE, requested that Democracy in Check track “dangerous discourse” within messages concerning convoys organized for September 7 (Independence Day).
In another message, Rondon requested that specific terms be added to the “query” — the term used for keyword searches in databases. In this instance, the database was populated with posts extracted from messaging apps and social media. The list included expressions related to the 2022 election and to Supreme Federal Court (STF) justices such as Alexandre de Moraes, Edson Fachin, and Luís Roberto Barroso.
“Looking at the report/methodology, I suggest a query for evaluation: (‘ballot boxes’) (‘electronic ballot boxes’) (‘electronic ballot box’) (‘digital ballot box’) (‘presidential elections’) (‘2022 elections’) (‘fraudulent elections’) (‘election fraud’) (‘electoral fraud’) (‘fraud in ballot boxes’) (‘fraud in elections’) (‘auditable ballot box’) (‘auditable ballot boxes’) (‘rigged ballot box’) (‘rigged ballot boxes’) (‘proof of fraud’) (‘printed election’) (‘printed vote’) (‘auditable vote’) (‘paper vote’) (‘paper ballot’) (‘paper voting’) (‘traditional voting’) (‘coup in ballot boxes’) (‘ballot box coup’) (‘coup in the election’) (‘coup in the voting’) (‘coup in the elections’) (‘paper ballot’) (‘paper ballot’) (‘vote receipt’) (‘annul the elections’) (‘annul the votes’) (‘annul the voting’) (‘vote count’) (‘they stole the elections’) (‘steal the elections’) (‘annulled elections’) (‘Brazilian elections’) (‘unauditable’) (‘new elections’) (‘barroso’) (‘fachin’) (‘moraes’) (‘tse’) (‘superior electoral court’) (‘regional electoral court’) (‘electoral poll’) (‘article 142’) (‘art 142’) (‘military intervention’) (‘I authorize’), ‘LOG’; ‘Law and Order Guarantee’; ‘State of Defense’; ‘State of Emergency’; ‘Military Police and Auxiliary Forces’; ‘Art. 136’; ‘Art. 137’; ‘Art; 144’,” Rondon wrote.
The Democracy in Check Institute monitored platforms such as X (formerly Twitter), Telegram, and Gettr. Members of the institute frequently dispatched bulletins on activity across these networks, including mentions of terms related to the TSE and even Supreme Federal Court (STF) justices.
Rondon’s request for the addition of new terms for data extraction came shortly after Beto Vasques, from Democracy in Check, had sent reports detailing mentions of TSE and STF justices, as well as the significant date of September 7, 2022, which marked Brazil’s Bicentennial of Independence. During the Bolsonaro administration, this date was frequently characterized by demonstrations in support of the then-President.
Democracy in Check was not the sole partner monitoring September 7. The obtained messages also expose that the technology company Palver similarly played this role in cooperation with the TSE, operating within a separate group.
Some of the messages intercepted by Palver contained criticisms of Lula, Moraes, and the electronic voting machine system.
What is “Vaza Toga”?
The information and documents revealed in this report, exclusively obtained by Oeste, add grave new details to the facts that began to surface with the revelations initially published by the newspaper Folha de S. Paulo in what became known as “Vaza Toga” (something like “Robe Leaks”).
The first allegations were made by Glenn Greenwald and Fábio Serapião, as previously reported by Oeste. New compromising documents have since come to light through investigations by David Ágape and Eli Vieira, published on the Public website.
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