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By <\/b><\/li>\n February 4, 2026<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Brazil\u2019s most influential political messaging is increasingly appearing in an unlikely place: Instagram gossip accounts best known for tracking the beach bodies and love lives of celebrities.<\/p>\n Late last year, some of these accounts began featuring a less glamorous \u2014 but far more powerful \u2014 figure: Gov. Tarc\u00edsio de Freitas of S\u00e3o Paulo.<\/p>\n @alfinetei, which has more than 25 million followers, shared a video of Freitas and a motorcycle messenger celebrating a local tax cut for motorcyclists. @garotxdoblog, with 1.2 million followers, posted images of the governor inaugurating a new stretch of S\u00e3o Paulo\u2019s Rodoanel beltway. And @exclusivasdafama, with more than 9.1 million followers, reported that he had mobilized police forces to combat gender-based violence. The post ended with a clapping emoji.<\/p>\n Representatives for Freitas, who\u2019s a member of former President Jair Bolsonaro\u2019s Republicans Party and is\u00a0running for reelection<\/u><\/a> in October, denied his office commissioned the posts, according to\u00a0an investigation<\/u><\/a> by Piau\u00ed magazine.<\/p>\n Still, the posts highlight how Brazil\u2019s celebrity gossip accounts are blurring the line between entertainment and news, becoming a powerful and lightly scrutinized channel for political image-making ahead of the country\u2019s elections.<\/p>\n Many of these accounts imitate journalistic practices, but frequently spread misinformation, said Rog\u00e9rio Christofolleti, an ethics professor at Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina.<\/p>\n \u201cFrom the point of view of journalistic ethics, it’s quite complicated,\u201d Christofolleti said in an interview with\u00a0LatAm Journalism Review (LJR)<\/strong>. \u201cInformation should only be published when it has been verified, when it has substance, when it has informational density.\u201d<\/p>\n Memes and news<\/strong><\/p>\n Gossip accounts frequently have greater reach than legacy news outlets. Of Brazil\u2019s top 20 Instagram publishers, four are accounts that frequently use news and memes to engage audiences,\u00a0according to social media tracker Zeeng<\/u><\/a>.\u00a0 They are Alfinetei, with 25 million followers, Gina Indelicada with 12.5 million, Central da Fama with 5.7 million, and Subcelebrities with 4.5 million.<\/p>\n That\u2019s in part because Brazilians have come to rely on social media to stay informed. The Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism for 2025\u00a0shows<\/u><\/a> that 33% of Brazilian respondents say they follow creators and influencers, while 30% say they follow news brands and journalists.<\/p>\n News making has become more dynamic with the ubiquitousness of social media, according to Eduardo Prange, a big data researcher at Zeeng. Publishers have to adapt to formats more keen on summarization.<\/p>\n \u201cWe have a primary informational culture here in Brazil, which is through memes. I think memes are the key starting point for any conversation,\u201d Prange told\u00a0LJR<\/strong>. \u201cWhen the conversation heats up, it can even reverberate into more traditional content formats, but the triggers for engagement, interaction, dispersion and virality come almost entirely from memes.\u201d<\/p>\n This is especially pressing as data shows Brazil is a prolific country for social content creators, with over\u00a02 million<\/u><\/a>, making it\u00a0one of the world’s biggest<\/u><\/a> markets. Journalism is still trying to catch on, in a wave that is\u00a0redefining the relationship between journalists and newsrooms<\/u><\/a>.<\/p>\n Carolina Terra, a University of S\u00e3o Paulo digital communications researcher, told\u00a0LJR<\/strong> that, even though these types of gossip pages often use the news, they do not share the commitment or ethical and journalistic principles as legacy outlets.<\/p>\n \u201cThe more engagement, the more visibility, the better for them,\u201d Terra said. \u201cThey understood that it would also be interesting for them to go beyond this coverage of the lives of celebrities and subcelebrities.\u201d<\/p>\n One of Terra\u2019s graduate students, Nath\u00e1lia Sanches, developed the concept of “depersonalized account,\u201d meaning pages that are more akin to brands and have no clear person behind them. These accounts are what she calls \u201calgorithmic hubs,\u201d or labs for viralization, she said.<\/p>\n \u201cSince they do not have the commitment of personality (no one demands ethics from a faceless logo), they are used tactically to test narratives,\u201d Sanches told\u00a0LJR<\/strong>. \u201cThey sacrifice ethics, truth, journalistic verification in exchange for distribution efficiency.\u201d<\/p>\n One agency\u2019s standards<\/strong><\/p>\n No celebrity and gossip account managers responded to requests from\u00a0LJR<\/strong> to understand whether and how they apply journalistic standards in their daily practices.<\/p>\n But Banca Digital, one of Brazil\u2019s biggest online marketing agencies, with over 50 accounts, has\u00a0faced issues<\/u><\/a> of unsubstantiated rumours getting amplified that have led to internal changes.<\/p>\n In 2023, an account Banca had previously represented called Choquei, which now has 27 million followers,\u00a0published false information about an alleged affair between a Brazilian influencer and a female fan.<\/u><\/a><\/p>\n The repercussions led to the then 22-year-old woman committing suicide.\u00a0Police concluded<\/u><\/a> the woman had started the rumors, and Choquei faced no criminal liability but was\u00a0\u00a0heavily criticized<\/u><\/a> for spreading false rumors.<\/p>\n Even though Choquei was not a Banca client at the time, other smaller gossip pages from their roster did amplify the misinformation. This led to an internal search for accountability at Banca Digital.<\/p>\n \u201cEveryone has a responsibility, so if a crisis happens, everyone has to stop and observe,\u201d Alberto Pereira Jr., marketing and journalism director at Banca Digital, told\u00a0LJR<\/strong> in an interview. He confirmed that Banca was directly reached by emissaries of S\u00e3o Paulo\u2019s governor to do posts with the accounts they represent, but the company declined.<\/p>\n Banca created both an internal protocol and a guiding book for its roster. The first aims to identify the circulation of false information or sensitive content that could have adverse effects on the \u2018quality of public discourse.\u2019 According to the company, since the protocol was adopted, more than 60 pieces of content have been taken down and around 200 publications have undergone some form of rectification.<\/p>\n The booklet, shared with\u00a0LJR<\/strong>, shows a batch of good editorial practices. Pereira also said a journalist is always available to advise the accounts.<\/p>\n Basic fact-checking, crediting the source, respecting copyright, contextualizing the post, respecting privacy, correcting mistakes, clearly identifying paid posts \u2013 these are 101 for journalists but that might be new information for digital creators.<\/p>\n \u201cWe want to work on prevention,\u201d Pereira said. \u201cIt’s better than having to chase the consequences later and archiving it, especially since once the post is down, we know it’s already out there.\u201d<\/p>\n For Christofolleti, it’s important that those interested in good journalism as a whole pay attention in this election year. He said the S\u00e3o Paulo case is a disinformation campaign.<\/p>\n \u201cThey use these outlets, which are not journalistic outlets,\u201d Christofolleti said. They\u2019re \u201coutlets that often belong to celebrities or cover celebrities, to address issues that are alien to them.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n
\n Leonardo Coelho<\/a>\t <\/p>\n