#Brazil 's Supreme Court on Wednesday convicted two former lawmakers of ordering the 2018 assassination of #Rio de Janeiro councilwoman #MarielleFranco , a popular black activist whose murder exposed deep ties between politics and organized crime. Franco, an #LGBTQ activist who grew up in a favela and became an outspoken critic of Rio's powerful militia groups, was 38 when she was gunned down in the city center alongside her driver, Anderson Gomes.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SHPCl1htjXk

#Brazil 's Supreme Court on Wednesday convicted two former lawmakers of ordering the 2018 assassination of #Rio de Janeiro councilwoman #MarielleFranco , a popular black activist whose murder exposed deep ties between politics and organized crime. Franco, an #LGBTQ activist who grew up in a favela and became an outspoken critic of Rio's powerful militia groups, was 38 when she was gunned down in the city center alongside her driver, Anderson Gomes.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SHPCl1htjXk

guess i'm good right now with the plant posting, it's time for a little bit of inverts-at-night posting following my portfolio building around here 🦗



they're kinda my specialty so we'll probably have a lot of up-close crawlies in the dark here in the following days - hope you guys like 'em!



Almost all the pics were taken during field research at night in the Atlantic or Amazon rainforest years ago 🖤



#photography #nature #mantis #invertebrates #insect #arthropods #mantidae #mantodea #amazon #rainforest #brazil #tropical #flash #night

guess i'm good right now with the plant posting, it's time for a little bit of inverts-at-night posting following my portfolio building around here 🦗



they're kinda my specialty so we'll probably have a lot of up-close crawlies in the dark here in the following days - hope you guys like 'em!



Almost all the pics were taken during field research at night in the Atlantic or Amazon rainforest years ago 🖤



#photography #nature #mantis #invertebrates #insect #arthropods #mantidae #mantodea #amazon #rainforest #brazil #tropical #flash #night

Are there any teachers using #Mastodon or other #Fediverse tools, such as blogs, for educational purposes?

I started working as a software developer in 2006 to build a social networking platform for one of the largest universities in Brazil. One of the main goals was to share knowledge via blogs and discussion forums, and I think there were quite a few positive use cases.

While doing research in physics, I moderated an online forum on Orkut* with more than 15 thousand members, together with some other physicists. Even professors began engaging in the discussions, which were sometimes at a high level, and they helped students who wanted to pursue an academic career or become teachers. I found the experience quite positive, mainly for students - it was forbidden asking for doing their homework.

This could be a good use case for non-addictive social media and set a good example for its use in education. This is in contrast to Big Tech social media, which is harming our youth.

* Orkut was a social network of Google, quite popular in Brazil in the early 2000s.

#Education #Physics #Brazil #Blogs #BigTech #SocialMedia #Youth

Are there any teachers using #Mastodon or other #Fediverse tools, such as blogs, for educational purposes?

I started working as a software developer in 2006 to build a social networking platform for one of the largest universities in Brazil. One of the main goals was to share knowledge via blogs and discussion forums, and I think there were quite a few positive use cases.

While doing research in physics, I moderated an online forum on Orkut* with more than 15 thousand members, together with some other physicists. Even professors began engaging in the discussions, which were sometimes at a high level, and they helped students who wanted to pursue an academic career or become teachers. I found the experience quite positive, mainly for students - it was forbidden asking for doing their homework.

This could be a good use case for non-addictive social media and set a good example for its use in education. This is in contrast to Big Tech social media, which is harming our youth.

* Orkut was a social network of Google, quite popular in Brazil in the early 2000s.

#Education #Physics #Brazil #Blogs #BigTech #SocialMedia #Youth

#Indigenous Resistance Forces #Brazil To Revoke #Amazon Waterway Decree After 33 Days of Occupation

https://amazonwatch.org/news/2026/0223-indigenous-resistance-forces-brazil-to-revoke-amazon-waterway-decree-after-33-days-of-occupation

> “This proves that life – the river – has no price. It cannot be sold, it is not negotiable. That’s why we will never back down.”

Yoruba Yemoja float with 10,000 Litres of water by Mocidade Alegre Won the São Paulo Carnival 2026 in Brazil!

Yemọja (also: Yemaja, Yemanjá, Yemoyá, Yemayá, etc.) is a major water deity in the Yoruba religion.
She is an oriṣa, and the patron spirit of rivers, particularly the Ogun River in Nigeria, and of oceans in Cuban and Brazilian Orisha religions.

#Nigeria #Brazil

Yoruba Yemoja float with 10,000 Litres of water by Mocidade Alegre Won the São Paulo Carnival 2026 in Brazil!

Yemọja (also: Yemaja, Yemanjá, Yemoyá, Yemayá, etc.) is a major water deity in the Yoruba religion.
She is an oriṣa, and the patron spirit of rivers, particularly the Ogun River in Nigeria, and of oceans in Cuban and Brazilian Orisha religions.

#Nigeria #Brazil

The situation is equally shameful, or worse, in #Brazil. We are increasingly barred from civic participation unless we submit to Google or Apple's proprietary #enshittification. Wishing you success in halting this; let it set a precedent for our authorities too. 🍎

CC:' title='

CC:' class='emoji' src='https://api.iconify.design/enshittification/

CC.svg' /> @jdelacueva@mastodon.social @EUCommission@ec.social-network.europa.eu

#digitalSovereignty #soberaniaDigital #privacy #proprietarySoftware

The situation is equally shameful, or worse, in #Brazil. We are increasingly barred from civic participation unless we submit to Google or Apple's proprietary #enshittification. Wishing you success in halting this; let it set a precedent for our authorities too. 🍎

CC:' title='

CC:' class='emoji' src='https://api.iconify.design/enshittification/

CC.svg' /> @jdelacueva@mastodon.social @EUCommission@ec.social-network.europa.eu

#digitalSovereignty #soberaniaDigital #privacy #proprietarySoftware

"As a new child safety law comes into effect in Brazil from March, requiring platforms providing gambling, pornography, and other such content to verify ages, users are learning to circumvent the tech, Simone Lahorgue Nunes, founding partner at law firm Lahorgue Advogadas Associadas in Rio de Janeiro, told Rest of World.

“Age-verification technologies are not infallible,” she said. “Minors are using increasingly sophisticated techniques, including VPNs [virtual private networks] and AI-generated deepfakes or selfies. Conversely, overly stringent measures may drive underage users toward the dark web or services hosted in so-called digital havens, thereby exacerbating the very risks such regulation seeks to mitigate.”

See the full picture of how technology is shaping the world. Twice a week, straight to your inbox.

Circumventing age verification doesn’t even need much sophistication. In a subreddit on bypassing the Roblox checks, users recommend fake IDs and AI-generated photos. “I used a fake ID of [Joseph] Stalin and it got accepted,” one user wrote. Another user posted a video on X that showed a crude face painted on a thumb going through the age check on Roblox and being assessed to be 13 to 15 years old."

https://restofworld.org/2026/social-media-age-verification-tools/

#AgeVerification #SocialMedia #Censorship #Biometrics #FacialRecognition #Brazil #VPNs

"As a new child safety law comes into effect in Brazil from March, requiring platforms providing gambling, pornography, and other such content to verify ages, users are learning to circumvent the tech, Simone Lahorgue Nunes, founding partner at law firm Lahorgue Advogadas Associadas in Rio de Janeiro, told Rest of World.

“Age-verification technologies are not infallible,” she said. “Minors are using increasingly sophisticated techniques, including VPNs [virtual private networks] and AI-generated deepfakes or selfies. Conversely, overly stringent measures may drive underage users toward the dark web or services hosted in so-called digital havens, thereby exacerbating the very risks such regulation seeks to mitigate.”

See the full picture of how technology is shaping the world. Twice a week, straight to your inbox.

Circumventing age verification doesn’t even need much sophistication. In a subreddit on bypassing the Roblox checks, users recommend fake IDs and AI-generated photos. “I used a fake ID of [Joseph] Stalin and it got accepted,” one user wrote. Another user posted a video on X that showed a crude face painted on a thumb going through the age check on Roblox and being assessed to be 13 to 15 years old."

https://restofworld.org/2026/social-media-age-verification-tools/

#AgeVerification #SocialMedia #Censorship #Biometrics #FacialRecognition #Brazil #VPNs

"Brazil’s executive branch has already launched a sweeping AI action plan, and lawmakers are expected to pass a regulatory framework in the coming weeks. Still, Brazil’s approach to AI policy has caused some pushback at home, and not only from tech companies fearing red tape.

Ronaldo Lemos, the founder of the Institute for Technology and Society of Rio de Janeiro and one of the authors of Brazil’s 2014 internet bill of rights, told Foreign Policy that Brazil’s draft AI legal framework leans so heavily into regulation that the country stands to miss out on economic benefits.

Brazilian officials, for their part, have argued that their proposed AI policies strike a balance between innovation and safeguarding against potential harm.

If enacted in its current form, Lemos said, the AI action plan “would cause significant stagnation in the artificial intelligence innovation sector.” He noted that the legislation does little to address the need for large-scale education and workforce retraining. Though the plan mentions retraining, Lemos said it is an area where Brazil can learn from India."

https://foreignpolicy.com/2026/02/20/brazil-india-lula-modi-visit-ai-rare-earths-cooperation/

#Brazil #Brasil #India #Lula #AI #AIPolicy #AIActionPlan #Diplomacy

"Brazil’s executive branch has already launched a sweeping AI action plan, and lawmakers are expected to pass a regulatory framework in the coming weeks. Still, Brazil’s approach to AI policy has caused some pushback at home, and not only from tech companies fearing red tape.

Ronaldo Lemos, the founder of the Institute for Technology and Society of Rio de Janeiro and one of the authors of Brazil’s 2014 internet bill of rights, told Foreign Policy that Brazil’s draft AI legal framework leans so heavily into regulation that the country stands to miss out on economic benefits.

Brazilian officials, for their part, have argued that their proposed AI policies strike a balance between innovation and safeguarding against potential harm.

If enacted in its current form, Lemos said, the AI action plan “would cause significant stagnation in the artificial intelligence innovation sector.” He noted that the legislation does little to address the need for large-scale education and workforce retraining. Though the plan mentions retraining, Lemos said it is an area where Brazil can learn from India."

https://foreignpolicy.com/2026/02/20/brazil-india-lula-modi-visit-ai-rare-earths-cooperation/

#Brazil #Brasil #India #Lula #AI #AIPolicy #AIActionPlan #Diplomacy

Brazil’s data protection authority (ANPD) became autonomous in 2022 and was further strengthened in 2025 as a full regulatory agency.

This signals growing enforcement maturity under LGPD, clearer regulatory authority, and long-term governance stability.

For companies operating in Brazil, privacy compliance is shifting from emerging requirement to strategic expectation.

#LGPD #Brazil #Privacy #DataProtection

Consequences

Lovely

As an American I am in raging envy at countries that punish their criminals

#Brazil #SouthKorea #UK

In the #USA we see a convicted #rapist and we elect them or sit things out in whiny entitled #toxicIdealism

I live in a stupid fucking country

Americans:

#Vote

In the #primaries

In the #general

Get your #voterRegistration settled now. Familiarize yourself with the #candidates in your primary. Let's get 50 Mamdanis in there

Maybe we can see this too

#EpsteinFiles

Consequences

Lovely

As an American I am in raging envy at countries that punish their criminals

#Brazil #SouthKorea #UK

In the #USA we see a convicted #rapist and we elect them or sit things out in whiny entitled #toxicIdealism

I live in a stupid fucking country

Americans:

#Vote

In the #primaries

In the #general

Get your #voterRegistration settled now. Familiarize yourself with the #candidates in your primary. Let's get 50 Mamdanis in there

Maybe we can see this too

#EpsteinFiles