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11 Nov, 13 tweets, 6 min read
NEW: Brazil's president has already begun claiming fraud in next year's elections. He's had some help from the U.S.

Fresh off disputing the 2020 election, Donald Trump and his allies are exporting their strategy to Latin America’s largest democracy.
nytimes.com/2021/11/11/wor…
To understand this, let's examine what transpired in Brazil over just a few days in September.

On Sept. 4, more than 1,000 conservatives attended CPAC Brasil, a conference organized by President Bolsonaro's son, Eduardo, & the American Conservative Union.
The headliner was Donald Trump Jr., who told the crowd that if they didn’t think the Chinese were aiming to undermine Brazil's election, “you haven’t been watching.”

His comments were dubbed into Portuguese and viewed hundreds of thousands of times.
Another speaker was @RepMarkGreen, a Tenn. Republican. The ACU paid ~$15,000 to send him, according to a lobbying form.

He voted against certifying the 2020 election and has pushed laws against voter fraud. In Brazil, he met with lawmakers to discuss "voting integrity policies."
CPAC Brasil was sponsored by Gettr and Parler, the two right-wing Twitter clones that are growing fast in Brazil, now their #2 market.

Gettr's CEO, former Trump spokesman @JasonMillerinDC, went to Brazil, while @RealCandaceO pitched Parler in a video.
President Bolsonaro is the only world leader on Gettr and Parler.

The sites could prove critical for him. He's relied on social media to build his movement, but tech companies are now cracking down on him, despite his efforts to block them from doing so. nytimes.com/2021/09/15/wor…
Project Veritas, the right-wing group that secretly records journalists & federal workers, was also there.

Eduardo Bolsonaro had been urging the group to expand to Brazil. At CPAC, Project Veritas's founder told the crowd that he planned to do just that.
After CPAC, the Bolsonaros welcomed Gettr's Jason Miller and two Project Veritas reps at Brazil's presidential palace.

The Americans, in suits, handed out Project Veritas gear. The Brazilians, barefoot, "kicked the tires" on Gettr, Miller told me.
The next day, Brazilian authorities detained Jason Miller at the airport to ask him about misinformation on Gettr.

He said the Brazilian Supreme Court justice investigating "fake news" signed the order. An airport worker acted as a translator.
Mr. Miller’s friend called Eduardo Bolsonaro for a lawyer. The lawyer arrived with a senior Bolsonaro adviser. The lawyer asked police not to mention the adviser in reports because, she said, he was just her boyfriend. The police mentioned him. He is not her boyfriend, they said.
Meanwhile, hundreds of thousands of Bolsonaro supporters were filling the national esplanade in Brasília. President Bolsonaro had called for protests against his enemies in the Supreme Court and on the left.

Eduardo Bolsonaro wore a Project Veritas shirt.
After a fiery speech, Bolsonaro went to São Paulo. He railed against the courts for Miller’s detainment.

He then turned to the election.

“We have three alternatives for me: Prison, death or victory,” he said. “Tell the bastards I’ll never be arrested.”
Ok, so that was four days.

For the full rundown on the tightening relationship between the Bolsonaros and the MAGA world
ahead of next year's big Brazilian elections, please read the full story from me and @leocoelho_jor -->

🇧🇷+🇺🇸
nytimes.com/2021/11/11/wor…

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More from @jacknicas

Jack Nicas Profile picture
27 Aug
I really disagree with the framing around the tech press tonight that Apple's new settlement with developers represents a big concession.

I don't see how this changes much. Some companies pretty much already do what Apple says it is suddenly allowing.
nytimes.com/2021/08/27/tec…
An Apple exec told reporters tonight that it was a huge concession that Apple will now let companies tell people in emails that they can buy their services outside their apps.

But Apple will still ban them from telling people that in the app itself.

Here's the current policy.
That does not feel like Apple is giving up much.

First of all, it seems like a self-own that Apple is publicly declaring that they have long restricted what other companies can say in private communications with prospective customers, completely outside of Apple's ecosystem.
Read 7 tweets
Jack Nicas Profile picture
7 Aug
So here's a funny, feel-good story.

In 2019, I wrote an essay for the @nytimes defending the widely ridiculed Oakland Coliseum.

nytimes.com/2019/10/02/spo…
In it, I called the Coliseum "baseball's last dive bar."

The piece went mildly viral in the baseball and Bay Area corners of the internet.
Hours after we published the piece, the Coliseum hosted its first @Athletics playoff game in years.

When I got there, I realized fans in the bleachers had already hung a sign referencing the essay!

Photo: @Tyska
Read 10 tweets
Jack Nicas Profile picture
5 Aug
Apple is aiming to prevent child sexual abuse with two new tools:

1. A pretty complex system to spot images of child sexual abuse uploaded to iCloud.

2. A feature that flags to parents when their children send or receive nude photos in texts.

nytimes.com/2021/08/05/tec…
Apple says all analysis happens on device to protect privacy. The software doesn't expose iCloud photos to Apple or authorities unless a certain number match a database of known sexual-abuse imagery. And Apple said it never sees or knows if a child has viewed or sent a nude photo
But some cybersecurity experts are concerned. @matthew_d_green goes over some of his thoughts here.

He worries in part that the tools set a dangerous precedent by creating surveillance technology that law enforcement or governments could exploit.
Read 5 tweets
Jack Nicas Profile picture
17 May
🚨NEW: Apple is jeopardizing its Chinese users’ data and augmenting the Chinese government’s censorship to placate authorities and keep its business running.

Here is our multiyear investigation into Apple's Faustian bargain in China: nytimes.com/2021/05/17/tec…
Let’s start in Guiyang, a city in southwestern China where a building a quarter-mile long has the flags of Apple and China flying out front.

Inside, Apple is preparing to store its Chinese users' data on computers owned and run by the Chinese government.

Photo: @KeithBradsher
Tim Cook has said the data is safe. We found that Apple has largely ceded control to the government.

State employees physically manage the servers; Apple stores the encryption keys on those servers; and it ditched the encryption it uses elsewhere after China wouldn't allow it.
Read 20 tweets
Jack Nicas Profile picture
21 Apr
The Senate is holding a hearing right now on Apple and Google's power over apps.

Apple's Kyle Andeer just gave some misleading testimony. He said Apple's commission is "almost always" 15% -- not 30%.

Yet: 95% of Apple's app revenue comes from developers that pay the 30% rate.
To be sure: 98% of apps that pay a commission are subject to the lower rate. But nearly all of the money Apple earns on the app store comes from larger companies paying the higher rate.
Tile's general counsel just testified that Apple would not let Tile use basic "ultra-wideband" technology in in iPhones that would've helped Tile's devices find lost items.

Yesterday, Apple released competing devices that use that technology to help people find lost items.
Read 9 tweets
Jack Nicas Profile picture
21 Jan
Two members of Congress, @RepAnnaEshoo & @Malinowski, just sent well-researched letters to the CEOs of Facebook, Google, YouTube and Twitter, urging them to fix their algorithms that promote conspiracy theories and push people to political extremes.

The letters to FB and Google:
And here's the letter to @jack:
Some of us have shouted this for years, so this sentence from Congress is refreshing:

The algorithms sort and spread "information to users by feeding them the content most likely to reinforce their existing political biases, especially those rooted in anger, anxiety and fear."
Read 4 tweets

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