The representation is based on a report by the Folha de S.Paulo newspaper published last Saturday (9), which revealed spreadsheets from the Secom (Special Secretariat of Communication of the Presidency) showing ads on fake news sites, jogo do bicho pages and personal promotion channels from the president.
"It is somewhat annoying that the scarce public money, which is often lacking in priority areas, is used to finance advertising campaigns on websites and channels that are not related to published material, such as children's websites or, what I understand more serious, they carry out unethical or illegal activities such as the dissemination of false news and the practice of games of chance," says the deputy prosecutor representation.
Secom hires advertising agencies that buy space through Google Ads to run campaigns on websites, YouTube channels and mobile applications.
The advertiser chooses what type of audience he wants to reach, on what types of sites he doesn't want his campaign to run, and which keywords should be banned. Then Google distributes the ads to sites or YouTube channels that meet the criteria set by the advertiser.
The amount paid by Secom is divided between Google and the website or YouTube channel. Google's percentages vary, from 40% to 20% or less, depending on the negotiation between the sites and the platform. At the end, the advertiser receives a report on all his ads, where they were served, how many impressions (ads) and other information.
According to Secom's spreadsheets, available on the federal government's Access to Information website, of the 20 YouTube channels that most aired ads for the ‘Nova Previdência’ (New Pension) campaign in the reported period, 14 are primarily aimed at children and teenagers, such as the Turma da Mônica and Planet Twins.
One of the YouTube channels that received the most ads, according to Secom, is Get Movies, which is not only aimed at children but has 100% of its content in Russian.
Another publication that received a considerable amount of advertisements with public money was a website with results of the jogo do bicho, the resultsdobichotemporeal.com.br. The game is illegal in Brazil. Fake news sites also received a lot of clicks - and money - from government ads. One of the them, with 66,431 ads, was Semper Questione.
Using Google filters, it is possible for the advertiser or advertising agency that represents a client to exclude, for example, children's websites or channels, of political content, of an illegal theme (such as jogo do bicho) or pornographic, to ensure that advertising will not be served on these channels.
Source: Folhapress
