Army did not interfere in the counting of votes for president on election day

False: It is false that members of the Army, alerted by Russian hackers, would have entered the vote counting room at the Superior Electoral Court (TSE) during the calculation of the result of the first round of the elections, on Sunday (2), and prevented an alleged fraud to elect the PT candidate to the Presidency of the Republic, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. The content was fabricated without any proven evidence and has already been denied by the court, the Ministry of Defense and the Russian Embassy in Brazil.

Investigated Content: Video of three minutes alleging that members of the Brazilian Army, alerted by Russian hackers, would have entered the vote-counting room at the TSE, during the counting of the first round of the elections, on Sunday (2), and prevented an alleged fraud. The scheme would involve gradually deducting a percentage point from the votes granted to President Jair Bolsonaro (PL) and adding half a point for former President Lula (PT), once 12% of the polls had already been counted.

where it was published: TikTok and Instagram.

Completion of Proof: It is false that members of the Army, alerted by Russian hackers, would have entered the vote tallying room at the TSE, during the counting of the first round of the elections and prevented an alleged fraud. The content was fabricated, that is, it is not based on any evidence.

The court’s press office denied the piece of disinformation by guaranteeing that the army was not at the courthouse on the day of the first round. The Ministry of Defense, the body to which the Armed Forces are linked, and the Russian Embassy in Brazil also denied the story verified here. The platform TikTok removed the video from the air for containing “harmful disinformation”.

The so-called “secret room”, where the totaling of votes takes place, in fact, is not the same where TSE servers monitor the count, including the participation of supervisory entities. The totalization process occurs automaticallywithout interference from any of those present, by a supercomputer.

Falsefor Comprova, is content invented or edited to change its original meaning and deliberately disclosed to spread a falsehood.

Scope of publication: By the end of this Tuesday (4), the publication on TikTok had 227,100 likes, 10,300 comments and 144,000 shares. The video became unavailable between Tuesday night and early Wednesday afternoon (5).

What the author of the publication says: We were able to contact the author of the publication, Sérgio Tavares, by Whatsapp. He confirmed authorship of the post and said his source was “reliable”, and informed us that he would ask permission to reveal it; later, he chose “not to provide further details”.

How do we check: We searched Google for articles that contained, at the same time, the key phrases “fraud”, “first round”, “Russian hackers” and “armed forces”, or “army” or “military”. We also did a separate search for “secret room” and “TSE” to find out specifically about where votes are totaled, at the courthouse. In response, we got an article from the fact-checking agency Boatos.org denying the piece of disinformation, as well as articles from news outlets such as CNN Brasil and UOLused in this verification.

We still consulted, on the internet, about the calculation carried out on election day to find out the dynamics of the vote count. The search returned reports from the G1 It’s from Value which, among other information, indicated the reason for the change of position of the candidates during the calculation, according to the progress of the count in different regions of the country.

We contacted the TSE, the Ministry of Defense, the Army and the Russian Embassy in Brazil, the parties cited by the content, and TikTok, the social network where the verified content was published.

TSE, Ministry of Defense and Russian Embassy in Brazil deny history

The bodies cited in the video deny the alleged story. In a note sent to Comprova, the TSE press office denied the piece of disinformation and assured that the Army was not at the courthouse on October 2, the day of the first round.

The Army informed that the request should be directed to the Ministry of Defense. In contact with Comprova, by telephone, the Ministry of Defense spokesperson stated that the content is false. The Russian Embassy in Brazil said only that “it does not comment on fictitious information and falsifications (fakes)”.

counting of votes

The counting of votes on Sunday, October 2, was broadcast on real time by several vehicles, on television and the internet, and the first data released pointed to an advantage for Lula, soon surpassed by Bolsonaro. The president was in charge of the investigation for more than two hourswhile the vote count progressed in the South and Midwest regionswhere Bolsonaro is preferred by the electorate.

As the count progressed in other parts of the country, the difference between Lula and Bolsonaro was decreasing until, around 8 pm, with 70% of the polls counted, the former president turned around and did not leave the leadership until the conclusion of the investigation. The voting map demonstrates, therefore, that the variations in the candidates’ indexes are related to the regions in which the counting of votes was concentrated, and not to the alleged fraud falsely alleged in the video investigated here.

Secret room is known and is not the same location as the totalization team

The content also alleges that there is a “secret room”, where votes are counted, inside the TSE headquarters in Brasília. The expression, which suggests a lack of transparency in the electoral process, is commonly used among those who attack the credibility of the Electoral Justice, among them the President of the Republic himself, Jair Bolsonaro (PL). However, it is incorrect to claim that the existence or location of this room is not officially revealed.

There are two “safe rooms” in the TSE. In one, there is a supercomputer that automatically totals election votes – that is, without interference from any person present – ​​and from the data collected in the electronic voting machines and printed in the ballot boxes. In the other, it is the source code of the pollswhich is the programming language of their software, after being sealed.

Both rooms have restricted access, being monitored 24 hours and protected by five coded doors, as reported by CNN Brasil. Their existence and location are public knowledge: they are on the premises of the Information Technology Secretariat of the TSEat the court’s headquarters in Brasília.

The team of TSE servants that monitors the counting of votes, made up of technicians from the Electoral Justice itself, is not located in any of these rooms. They work in a space that is open, even on election day, to inspection agentssuch as the Public Ministry and representatives of political parties.

On a visit on September 28, guided by the president of the court, Minister Alexandre de Moraes, and accompanied by the pressValdemar Costa Neto himself, who presides over the PL, Bolsonaro’s acronym, said that the room “is open”.

Video is unavailable on TikTok

TikTok made the video unavailable between Tuesday and Wednesday (5). Comprova was unable to determine the exact moment of suspension. Sought, the TikTok press office in Brazil reported that the video platform “works with a combination of technology and people to identify and remove content that violates our Community Guidelines”. Regarding the verified content, TikTok said the video “has been removed for harmful misinformation”.

why do we investigate: Comprova investigates suspicious content that went viral on social media about the covid-19 pandemic, public policies of the federal government and presidential elections. The video investigated here cites the two presidential candidates who are in the running for the second round, trying to trick people into believing in an alleged fraud to favor one candidate over another. Disinformation, like the one in this video, tries to take away the credibility of the electoral process, which is an affront to democracy because it takes away people’s right to make their choices based on true content.

Other checks on the topic: O Fact or Fakefrom G1, and the checking agency Boatos.org also denied the content verified here. The campaign period for the second round of elections has already started with disinformation. Comprova showed, for example, that it is a lie that Barreiras, in Bahia, registered a higher number of votes for Lula than the population of the city is that it is false that the ballot box found in Curitiba was not included in the election result.

On the weekend of the vote, many pieces of disinformation also circulated. Comprova turned out to be fake that Ciro Gomes declared support for Bolsonarowhat website reported increased sponsorship of Neymar after the player expressed support for the president and yet that Lula voters would have a different day for voting.

Investigated by: CNN Brasil, GaúchaZH, A Gazeta and Crusoé; Verified by: Correio do Estado, Piauí, Rádio BandNews FM and Plural Curitiba

Source: CNN Brasil

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