Barroso reproduced a senator’s report when he said that ‘elections in Roraima are not won, they are taken’

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Investigated content: Old video has returned to circulation and argues that the president of the Federal Supreme Court (STF), minister Luís Roberto Barroso, said that “an election is not won, it is taken”.

Where was it published:X.

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Conclusion of Comprova: Publication is misleading when it says that Barroso said that “elections are not won, they are taken”. The post uses a recording made in the Chamber of Deputies, in which the magistrate talks about the context of the Roraima elections before electronic voting. The video manipulates the original content by suppressing the name of the State in the caption, implying that the elections as they are taking place throughout the country today are fraudulent.

On June 8, 2021, Barroso met with a group of parliamentarians at the Superior Electoral Court (TSE), including senator Mecias de Jesus (Republicanos-RR) and his son, deputy Jhonatan de Jesus (Republicanos-RR). On that occasion, according to a note published by the TSE, the senator told the minister that, twice, he had won elections in his state, but that “the elections were taken from him”. Hence the origin of the phrase “elections in Roraima are not won, they are taken”. Mecias clarified that this happened during the time of voting by ballot. And he added that, with the implementation of electronic voting, they were unable to rig the election. So he finally got the job.

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When appearing in the Chamber of Deputies, the following day, in conversation with parliamentarians, Barroso narrated the story he heard from Senator Mecias de Jesus and repeated the passage that summarized it: “Elections in Roraima are not won, they are taken”, as shown in the original video of the speech published by TV Câmara on YouTube.

It is possible to hear that Barroso mentions “Roraima” in this original record, unlike the misleading publication, which suppresses the name of the State and takes the speech out of context. The minister was referring to the voting situation in Roraima at the time of paper voting, before the implementation of electronic voting machines. “I joked with him that elections in Roraima are not won, they are taken”.

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Soon after the first repercussion of the video, deputy Jhonatan de Jesus https://twitter.com/LRobertoBarroso/status/1425623179620405249 and highlighted that the minister’s speech was edited and taken out of context.

On April 12, 2023, the minister recalled what happened and reinforced the video edit attributed to him disseminated on social media: “I never said that ‘elections are not won, that elections are taken’. I never said that. But, if they go online, they make a macabre edition of separate texts and post them. Therefore, lying became a political strategy. And then we need to be clear about one thing: this is not an ideological problem. It can be conservative, it can be progressive, it can be liberal. Lying is an ethical problem, not a political problem.”

Months later, on September 14, 2023, Barroso again cited the edit in the video when rebutting the defense of Thiago Mathar, the second defendant tried in the STF for the coup acts of January 8. The lawyer for the person being investigated cited the minister as the author of the anti-democratic phrase.

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The author of the misleading publication was contacted by Comprova, but did not comment.

Misleading, for Comprova, is content taken from the original context and used in another in such a way that its meaning changes; that uses inaccurate data or that leads to an interpretation different from the intention of its author; content that confuses, with or without the deliberate intent to cause harm.

Publication reach: Comprova investigates suspicious content with the greatest reach on social media. As of April 30, the publication had 818.4 thousand views on X and 38 thousand likes.

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Sources we consulted: We did a search for the phrase that would have been said by Barroso and found a note from the TSE, a video from the Electoral Court denying the manipulated video and reports in which the minister explains in what context the comment was made. We also located a video published by TV Câmara with the minister’s full speech.

Why Comprova investigated this publication: Comprova monitors suspicious content published on social networks and messaging applications about public policies, health, climate change and elections at the federal level and opens investigations into those publications that have greater reach and engagement. You can also suggest checks via WhatsApp +55 11 97045-4984.

Other checks on the topic: STF ministers are frequent targets of disinformation. In this case, the Electoral Court published a video explaining that the phrase was taken out of context. Furthermore, in 2021, UOL Confere published a verification on the topic, showing that the phrase said by Barroso had been distorted by Bolsonarists. Comprova has also shown that it is misleading that the minister wanted to socialize Brazilian investments and that the STF wants to bar Christians from politics.