Thread by @jsrailton

BREAKING: pro-#Bolsonaro rioters breach Congress, Supreme Court & Presidential Palace in 🇧🇷#Brazil.

Ex president promotes a stolen election lie & has been close to Trump.

He skipped inauguration of his predecessor & flew to Florida.

By: @peterbmillard
bloomberg.com/news/articles/…

2/ What does this remind you of?

🇧🇷#Brazil is yet more proof that the "stolen election" lie is poison for Democracy.

3/ Appalling footage is surfacing of pro-#Bolsonaro rioters dragging and beating the police protecting 🇧🇷#Brazil's capitol.

This is very, very bad.

And looks extremely orchestrated.

4/ Pro-#Bolsonaro rioters ransacking 🇧🇷#Brazil's Supreme Court in the capitol, Brasília.

5/ Unlike the #January6th insurrection, President #Lula has already been inaugurated.

Here was #Bolsonaro's tear-streaked & self-pitying final address before he headed to Florida last week.

6/Pro-#Bolsonaro rioters demanding "source code."

Incredibly familiar.

Notably, some of their banners are in English.

Interesting.

Who exactly has been advising #Brazil's ex-president?

7/ Extreme-right playbook, 2020s edition:

Lose the election?

❌Claim it was stolen.
❌Cast doubt on the electoral process
❌Attack the institutions of democracy.

Social media plays a huge role in making this possible.

8/ #Bolsonaro slinking away to Florida in weepy self-pity seemed odd.

Anyone know where he is this afternoon?

IF he's outside #Brazil, he has conveniently put distance between himself and & immediate legal consequences for whatever role he's just played in the #Brasilia siege.

9/ Remember, we know that Steve #Bannon & Jason Miller have been advising #Bolsonaro since he lost the election.

#Brazil
By @lizzadwoskin & @pessoagabi
washingtonpost.com/world/2022/11/…

10/ English-language hashtags promoting the #Bolsonaro rioters now laying siege to #Brazil's Capitol #Brasilia are trending.

Again.

Just as they did right after the election.

Some rioters are carrying English language signs.

Again.

11/ The danger could not be more clear.

The global far right has a playbook & cast of strategists.

Many are 🇺🇸Americans.

They are the architects of our current political chaos.

And they will literally smash the institutions of democracy anywhere to get & hold power.

12/ Musk's takeover was a boon for right-wing Twitter in #Brazil.

#Bolsonaro called the acquisition a “breath of hope.”

This afternoon the platform is saturated with pro-insurrection content.

By @charlottepeet11
restofworld.org/2023/musk-twit…

13/ "It’s the start of a relationship which I’m sure will soon end in marriage" - #Bolsonaro on Musk.

It will be very interesting to see what comes next from the platform's CEO.

14/ Note: deleted a tweet showing pro-#Bolsonaro rioters savagely attacking a police officer in #Brazil.

I'm lightly concerned Twitter's moderation approach will reflect Musk's political views on the matter & I want to make sure this thread stays live.

nypost.com/2022/11/01/elo…

15/ Trump was conspicuously silent while his supporters did the worst of the #jan6Insurrection.

#Bolsonaro is similarly silent today.

Parallels everywhere.

16/ Minister responsible for security in #Brasilia was staunch #Bolsonaro ally Anderson Torres.

Brazilian newspaper Estadão cites unnamed sources saying he recently travelled to Florida.

He was just dismissed with immediate effect👇

Source estadao.com.br/politica/colun…

17/ Pro-#Bolsonaro rioters appear to smash cameras from the ceiling during #Brasilia siege.

18/ UPDATE: #Brazil's democratically-elected president #Lula orders security intervention to stop pro-#Bolsonaro siege of capitol #Brasilia.

19/ Democratically-elected President #Lula's address:

- Federal security intervention in #Brasilia
- Identified rioters will be punished
- Complicit Police & officials will be punished.
- Investigation will target financing for the siege

20/ NOW: Flashes & heavy crowd control gas clouds seen as authorities work to clear grounds #Brazil's National Congress building in #Brasilia.

21/ NOW: multiple government buildings including National Congress, Palace & Supreme Court cleared of pro-#Bolsonaro rioters.

Intense crowd control on the esplanade in front of National Congress in #Brasilia.

Still a large group remain in vicinity.

Reports of. 30 arrests.

22/ Arrest totals keep rising as night falls on the scene. 150 and counting per Globo.

Brazilian media commentators already talking about a failure of intelligence.

Large group of rioters currently remains West of the Palace of Justice.

23/ Police bus with smashed out windows carries off restrained rioters.

Wild scene.

#Brasilia

24/ WATCH First footage of aftermath.

Journalist stunned when he gets inside #Brazil's Supreme Tribunal.

Absolutely wrecked, inside and out.

Like anti-democratic hurricane.

25/ #Brasilia is a UNESCO Heritage site & crown jewel of modernism.

Pro-#Bolsonaro rioters busted everything they could get their hands on.

Computers, furniture, cabinets, televisions. They even soaked carpets & antique furniture by smashing open fire sprinklers.

26/ Elements among pro-#Bolsonaro rioters spotted yanking network cables from servers.

Interesting.

Voices suggest they may be disabling security camera systems.

27/ Rioters sacked #Brazil's capitol for hours.

Condemnations from world leaders have poured in.

Meanwhile?

Complicit, cowardly silence from ex-president #Bolsonaro.

28/ "Bolsonarist radicalism can bring together thousands of coup supporters, but still it cannot take a country."

Analysis by André Petry tonight.

Original (pt-br): piaui.folha.uol.com.br/nunca-foi-tao-…

29/ They did resolve matters peacefully.

With a fair election.

The people you've gotten close to lost.

This is weak and fools nobody.

Since you arrived Twitter has been a launchpad for the lies that underpinned this attack on #Brazil's democracy.

30/ Reminder: Musk's arrival at Twitter turbocharged #Brazil's far right.

Similar bumps did not happen on Instagram & Youtube during the same timeframe.

Report by @charlottepeet11 restofworld.org/2023/musk-twit…

31/ If he wants peace for Brazilians, Musk should encourage everyone to accept the results of democratic elections.

At this point, anything less is playing footsie with authoritarianism.

32/ #Brazil's AG Office requests pro-#Bolsonaro official in charge of security for the Federal District be arrested

Anderson Torres (@andersongtorres), perhaps not coincidentally, is currently in the United States. Like Bolsonaro.

oglobo.globo.com/politica/notic…

33/ Claimed to be the original of Brazil's 1988 constitution.¹

Which ended 21 years of dictatorship.

Makes me sick to my stomach.

¹OSINT: Maybe? Same cover. Original kept in museum section of the Supreme Federal Tribunal. Which was attacked today.

34/ "I have always been within the four lines of the Constitution" - Bolsonaro

The ex-president waited till the attack failed & his supporters been arrested & kicked out by riot squads before delivering this weak & evasive statement.

So familiar.

35/ Hashtag associated with #Bolsonaro supporters: "BrazilianSpring."

Very active today.

First, it's in English.

Second? Hard to imagine a Brazilian came up with the term...

Because it's the *middle of Brazil's scorching summer.*

Weird.

36/ Democratically-elected president @LulaOficial arrives.

"...The coup plotters who promoted the destruction of public property in Brasilia are being identified and will be punished. Tomorrow we resume work... Democracy always. Goodnight"

37/ Bannon spent today compulsively posting the mantra that #Brazil's election was stolen.

It wasn't. And he knows it.

He also called the rioters freedom fighters.

They aren't.

And he knows that, too.

38/ January 3rd, Florida:

Supporters of ex-president #Bolsonaro who met him at beach club mansion say he told them that the "best is yet to come."

39/ "I was surrounded, kicked, pushed, cursed. They broke my glasses, pulled my hair, tried to take my cell phone."

Just like on #Jan6 journalists were assaulted in #Brasilia.

h/t @tomphillipsin

40/#Brazil's Supreme Court orders immediate removal of #Brasilia's governor for 90 days.

Says attacks could have only happened w/official complicity.

Hours ago Gov @IbaneisOficial began a video with an apology to president #Lula.

Which was interesting.
g1.globo.com/politica/notic…

41/ Musk fired Twitter's entire #Brazil staff, except for some salespeople.

Including everyone who worked on moderation of violence & misinformation.

By @lizzadwoskin
washingtonpost.com/technology/202…

42/ Pro-#Bolsonaro accounts used the code phrase (“Festa da Selma”) to organize & hype the assault on #Brazil's capitol today.

Some even shared maps.

Here are some examples from just one user.

43/ The “Festa da Selma” code phrase saw a huge spike in the run-up to the attack in #Brasilia.

Over 10k accounts.

Pic: @arcelinobsilva (who posts in Portuguese) has been tracking the term.

44/Wild. It took me thirty seconds find scores of Twitter accounts telling everyone exactly where to go to attack #Brasilia.

This was in plain sight.

46/ Another good follow, @msoares found accounts responding to coded tweets about the imminent #Brasilia siege tweeting questions like which "side" the military will be on during the attack.

Right. Out. In. The. Open.

47/ The sheer obviousness of tweets in the run-up is staggering.

Everything was spelled out in the thinnest of codes.

I think #Twitter was either willfully blind or utterly negligent as #Brazil careened towards an organized siege against the three branches of government.

48/ There appears to be a growing effort among #Bolsonaro supporters to construct a narrative that the ransacking was *actually* done by #Lula supporters / infiltrators.

Just like with the US insurrection on #Jan6.

Same. Playbook.

49/ Just learned that @agenciapublica reported in November that Steve Bannon coined the term "BrazilianSpring."

Which went on to become a major trending topic on Brazilian Twitter.

h/t @barbaradosualdo
By @lauradscofield(in Portuguese): apublica.org/sentinela/2022…

50/ To cap off a wild 24h, #Brazil's ex-president #Bolsonaro just checked himself into a Florida hospital.

This would be a telenovela if it weren't so consequential.
scc10.com.br/saude/bolsonar…

51/I've pointed to possible links to US-based folks like Bannon & #Jan6 parallels.

And Twitter's failures.

Investigations needed.

That said, Brazil has its own history w/dictators & coups.

Now it's stock-taking time & I recommend seeking out *Brazilian* experts & voices.