Panel SA: iFood wants to call for a great debate on communication on social networks

iFood is organizing to propose a broad discussion on the future of communications on social networks. The idea is to create a working group involving civil society to discuss the matter, according to Diego Barreto, vice president of strategy and finance for the application.

The company already holds a national forum for couriers to address the demands of the category and issues related to the job market. The first edition took place in December 2021.

The new iFood movement follows the case disclosed by Agência Pública in early April. According to the report, the app would have hired two companies, Benjamim Comunicação and Social Qi, to set up action strategies on social networks, with the creation of fake profiles that criticized movements of delivery people – such as the Breque dos Apps, launched in July 2019. 2020 to claim better working conditions.

After the complaints, iFood ended the contract with Benjamim Comunicação and hired a law firm to investigate the case.

“He is acting independently, having access to all information according to demand and will help us in this investigation. In other words, I hope in three or four weeks to have a position saying: did we find this type of problem or not”, he says. Barrett.

According to the executive, breaking the contract was a tough decision for the company, because there is still no final version of what may have happened.

“Until this moment, we don’t have any evidence, but we decided to accelerate, taking some measures to send an internal and external message to say that this, for us, is not normal. That’s not what we believe, that’s not what one day we asked, hired, worked. And if something went out of that direction, it needs to be punished, it needs to be resolved”, he says.

Barreto says that iFood had difficulty monitoring contracted services due to the company’s growth. “Does anyone think we did something illegal? I have this comfort: we didn’t do something illegal.”

iFood is also reviewing its code of conduct and ethics to identify possible loopholes, mapping experts to define how to monitor social networks and training internal teams on concepts related to disinformation, according to Barreto.

“We brought in an institution specialized in the subject, which will work with partners to make sure that everyone is speaking the same language”, he says. Barreto believes that this is not just a discussion of iFood, but of society.

Last week, representatives of companies that would have been contracted by iFood were summoned to provide information at the CPI of Applications, of the Municipality of São Paulo. Conar, an advertising self-regulatory body, also opened an investigation into the campaign attributed to the app.

Joana Cunha with Andressa Motter and Fernanda Brigatti