In electoral periods, the political engagement on the social networks is intensified — they become the stage for campaigns, debates between citizens, and between voters and candidates. We have seen for some years that, in this context, topics related to social markers of difference come to the surface with more strength; however, when we try to return to which debates and controversies happened in each of these moments, we find great difficulty. Without any organized register, they get lost in infinite feeds, in the deletion of pages and profiles, or in the decision for shutting down sites and social networks.

It was for this reason that, during August and September 2016, period of municipal electoral campaigns in Brazil, our “Internet and Gender, Race and Other Social Markers” team followed profiles of Human Rights Activists with the aim of weekly monitoring and registering discussions about gender, race, sexuality, regional origin and social class, and their relation to politics and Internet.

To contribute to the construction of a digital memory of this period, we published the report #OtherVoices: gender, race, class and sexuality in the 2016 elections, systematizing what we reported on the Internet, Voices and Votes bulletins.

The report was released in the event “What is the Internet’s role in Brazilian politics?”. See the report here (in Portuguese):

The debate of the report happened in the panel “Acting challenges: activism and (in)visibility on the Internet“, with the participation of Natália Neris (InternetLab and one of the authors of the report), Tatiana Dias (Journalist), Pablo Ortellado (EACH-USP) and Larissa Santiago (Blogueiras Negras). Check out the discussion here.

By Natália Neris e Mariana Valente

Translation: Ana Luiza Araujo