Richarlison did not protest against the lack of energy in Amapá during the World Cup; tweet is about 2020 blackout

The publication on Facebook that suggests that the player Richarlison tweeted about the blackout that occurred in Amapá in 2022 is a satire. 2020, when the state was without electricity for 22 days,

Although Amapá recorded a power outage on November 24, 2022, the interruption began at 3 pm (one hour before the Brazilian team’s game) and returned about 1 hour later. On the day of Brazil’s debut, Richarlison made four publications on Twitter, all about the second goal scored by him.

Richarlison’s tweet used in the disinformation piece was published on November 17, 2020, when Brazil played in the World Cup Qualifiers against Uruguay. As verified by Projeto Comprova, in an interview after the match, at the time, the player charged authorities about the lack of energy in Amapá, which had lasted two weeks.

Comprova classifies memes, parodies and imitations as satire published with the intention of making humor. We check satirical content when we realize that there are people taking it for real.

Reach

Comprova investigates suspicious content with greater reach on social networks. Until the 28th of November, the post reached 12,000 likes, 457 comments and 3,000 shares.

What the publisher says

The Menes de Esquerda page has 189,000 followers on Facebook and usually publishes satirical content about the left in Brazil. The report contacted the profile via message on the platform but did not receive a response.

How do we check

We started the verification by searching Google for the keywords “blackout in Amapá”, which resulted in journalistic reports about the blackout that occurred in the state in 2020 and also about the lack of electricity that reached thirteen municipalities in Amapá on November 24 of this year .

Then we look for the tweet de Richarlison used in the disinformation piece and, by searching the keywords “Richarlison + blackout + Amapá”, we found a UOL article from 2020 on the subject. We also compared the player’s current Twitter profile picture with that of the investigated post using the Web.Archive.org tool.

Blackout

Amapá faced a blackout on November 24, 2022, registering a lack of electricity in 13 of the 16 municipalities in the state. Only the cities of Oiapoque, Laranjal do Jari and Vitória do Jari were not affected. The interruption was recorded one hour before Brazil’s debut in the World Cup, in which the selection beat Serbia with two goals by Richarlison.

According to an article published by G1, Energisa reported that an atmospheric discharge caused the interruption of the energy transmission network between Laranjal and Macapá. Distribution began to normalize around 4:12 pm on the 24th.

In November 2020, Amapá was without electricity for 20 days. According to G1, a fire on November 3 destroyed the transformer that brought electricity to most of the state’s population. After two total blackouts and 22 days of rotating supply, power was restored. Almost 90% of the population (about 765,000 people) were affected at the time.

The coincidence of Richarlison’s goals for the national team after the layoffs in Amapá led some Internet users from Amapá to associate the facts, as shown by GE.

Post of 2020

Although Amapá suffered another blackout shortly before Brazil’s game in this year’s World Cup, the tweet de Richarlison used in the investigated content was posted at 10:32 am on November 17, 2020. On that date, the Brazilian team played against Uruguay in the Qatar World Cup Qualifiers.

Richarlison scored the team’s second goal of the match. After the game, in an interview organized by the Brazilian Football Confederation (CBF), the striker asked the authorities to take action in relation to Amapá, which was facing two weeks of blackouts and instability of electricity.

“I wanted to dedicate this goal to all the people of Amapá, suffering a lot these days. As a Brazilian citizen, I ask that the authorities speak out, the people are suffering and they could pay more attention. I ask that they can look with affection, they are good citizens, are fighting. Tax is very expensive, food is very expensive, and now, this suffering. I hope they can solve this”, said the player, when he made the post, in 2020.

Furthermore, Richarlison’s Twitter profile picture is currently not the same as the one appearing in the misinformation piece. One print Screen carried out by the Web.Archive.org tool shows that the player used the photo that appears in the misleading post in 2020.

Why do we investigate?

Comprova investigates suspicious content that goes viral on social networks about the pandemic, public policies of the federal government and pieces that question the result of the presidential elections. The verified content makes fun of a serious situation that affected around 800,000 Brazilians. Comprova checks for satirical content when people who react to these posts understand them to be true.

Comprova has already done other checks on the Amapá blackout in 2020, when images went viral implying that the Landless Rural Workers Movement (MST) had destroyed the power station, causing the blackout in the state. As for the Brazilian team, it was found, for example, that the increase in sponsorship for Neymar after he declared support for Bolsonaro is false.