00:00And to go deeper into everything that is happening in Brazil, we are going live now to Rio de Janeiro
00:05with our special envoy Belén de los Santos, who has the latest details, the latest information of everything that is
00:10happening there.
00:11Go ahead, Bel. Welcome back once more.
00:15Hello, Ale. We are keeping a minute-to-minute tab on everything that is happening right now.
00:22You know that we have been saying this a lot, everything matters, every minute counts here.
00:27And of course, as we go closer into Sunday, the day that will define this electoral period, the day that
00:35will face Lula da Silva for the Workers' Party against Flavio Bolsonaro from the Liberal Party here in the run
00:41for Brazil, everything becomes more and more heightened.
00:45So today in Rio de Janeiro, you know, we have the debate, the last presidential debate between the candidates who
00:52talked about this prior.
00:53And I wanted to bring just one information important.
00:57There's been a lot of asking and demanding on behalf of an important part of the population,
01:04particularly those who support Lula da Silva regarding having the possibility for TV Global, the network that is hosting this
01:14debate.
01:14You know that these are not public debates in Brazil.
01:17They are hosted by private telecommunication companies.
01:21And they are asking the company to have online live checking of the information that the candidates are issuing, that
01:32they are mentioning and describing.
01:34That is something that is done around the world in other cases.
01:39And they are saying that this is crucial in order for the population to have access to good information so
01:48that they can decide.
01:49Because there was a lot of accusations in the first debate and there was a lot of lies or things
01:54that were just slowest, but did not agree with reality.
01:59That is one of the things to keep in mind.
02:02And definitely, if that doesn't happen in an official manner from the company or the debate itself, it will be
02:09happening in social media.
02:11There's a lot of activity in social media right now.
02:14But I thought it was important to bring that into consideration because it has to do as well with the
02:21way that information is just going around and functioning in this digital era, right?
02:29The access to information is the debate itself, but it's also the fact that what is said in the debate
02:36can contrast with the truth and its actual faithful information.
02:41So that is one of the things that we'll be keeping in mind before we see this last debate just
02:47two days prior of the election.
02:50Why is this fact-checking important for voters precisely at this point of the race, just two days away from
02:59the run?
03:01I think that is such a crucial question, Ali, because I think that we are looking at and analysts are
03:10pointing to the spread of fake news, the spread of misinformation that is really not even the action of a
03:20single actor, but just a characteristic of this digital era.
03:25We have been also following, you mentioned it before, the case with Meta and how the great IT companies are
03:34also now involved in the electoral campaign.
03:37So I think that what we're seeing is a world that is needing to adjust to these new times, to
03:44new rules.
03:45And in this case, that also means that people are able to contrast the information with checked data, because there
03:56is a lot in this world where anything can circulate made up by AI, for example, and past as truth.
04:04With the checking of information, the checking of information, the journalism essence of a lot of what we're discussing even
04:11is losing ground.
04:13And that is very dangerous for democracy if we think that democracy is really giving the people the power to
04:20decide on their own grounds.
04:21So I think it's important for people to be demanding this, and besides what the company decides to do or
04:29not, I think that we are looking at just people being more and more aware with the debate, with, in
04:36general, communication companies, and with the influence of these IT companies like Meta, people are getting more and more aware
04:44of what they need to do in this time to really guarantee democracy.
04:49And that has to do with communication as well.
04:52Thank you. Thank you, Bel, for the latest updates.
04:55We will be back to you in upcoming emissions to know more.
04:59Of course, Ale.
