Dr. Karina Stange Calandrin
Professor of International Relations, Brazilian Institute of Capital
Markets, Postdoctoral Researcher, Institute of International Relations at the University of São Paulo | BRAZIL
Short Bio: Dr. Karina Stange Calandrin is a Professor of International Relations at Ibmec-SP. She is currently a Postdoctoral Researcher at the Institute of International Relations at the University of São Paulo, where she conducts research on public opinion and foreign policy. Karina holds a PhD in International Relations from the San Tiago Dantas Graduate Program, with a dissertation focused on foreign policy analysis. Dr. Calandrin has extensive experience in teaching, research, and academic publishing in the fields of international relations theory, foreign policy, and global political dynamics. Dr. Karina Stange Calandrin has also been interviewed as an expert by major Brazilian media outlets, including Globo, CNN Brasil, Band, Record, O Estado de S. Paulo, Folha de S.Paulo, and CBN. She is a columnist for Interesse Nacional.
Event: SDGs Conference 2025
Date: September 24, 2025
SPEECH: In the margins of the 80th United Nations General Assembly, it is a privilege to reflect on one of the most urgent questions of our time: How do we protect democratic values in a digital world that both empowers and endangers them?
I come from Brazil, a country of immense cultural richness and democratic resilience, but also of deep inequalities and political volatility. In Brazil, as in many parts of the Global South, the relationship between technology, democracy, and human rights has evolved rapidly, and not without consequences. Social media has transformed the way politics is practiced and perceived. It has given voice to historically silenced groups:
Indigenous activists denouncing illegal mining in protected lands, women organizing against gender violence, and young Black leaders challenging institutional racism. And yet, the same platforms have been weaponized to spread lies, fuel polarization, and incite attacks on democratic institutions.
In the 2018 and 2022 elections, Brazil became a global laboratory for political disinformation. A report published by Avaaz and the Institute for Technology and Society of Rio de Janeiro (ITS) found that 62% of the most viral political images sent on WhatsApp in Brazil during the four weeks leading up to the 2018 election contained false or misleading information. In 2022, similar patterns reemerged, only faster, more coordinated, and often harder to trace.
The attack on Brazil’s democratic institutions on January 8th, 2023, when thousands of radicalized individuals invaded the presidential palace, the Supreme Court and Congress, did not come out of nowhere. It was the culmination of years of digital radicalization, coordinated in Telegram groups, amplified by influencers on YouTube and TikTok, and legitimized by elected officials. Much like the January 6th insurrection in the United States, Brazil’s January 8th was an algorithmic insurrection, organized not through secret meetings, but in public posts, livestreams, and viral memes. This convergence of technological infrastructure and authoritarian narrative reveals a central contradiction of our time: The same digital tools that connect us can also tear us apart.
What happened in Brazil is not unique; it is part of a global and deeply alarming trend in which democratic backsliding increasingly operates through digital infrastructure. Facebook, X, YouTube, and TikTok profit from attention, regardless of whether that attention is democratic or destructive. Their algorithms optimize for engagement, which often means outrage and fear, the very emotional conditions that autocracies exploit. We have a lot of examples from Hungary to Israel, from the Philippines to the US. These examples are not isolated crises.
They form a coherent authoritarian playbook in which digital tools are not only communication channels, but mechanisms of power consolidation. Without coordinated action, we risk entering an era where formally democratic regimes, with elections and constitutions, operate as digitally enabled authoritarian systems, in which consent is manufactured, dissent is discredited, and citizens are gradually transformed into followers, not participants.
Let me give you another example from Brazil: In many rural areas, WhatsApp is the only source of news. Entire communities receive political content often false, emotional, and unchecked through chains forwarded by friends and relatives. This creates information bubbles resistant to fact-checking or dialogue.
Why does this matter for democracy? Democracy is not just about voting. It is about shared truth, mutual recognition, and legitimate disagreement. When public debate is hijacked by disinformation, when social trust collapses, when the idea of “the people” is split into enemies and allies, democracy begins to rot from within. In Brazil, recent polls have shown that over 40% of the population distrusts the electoral system, despite its international recognition for security and transparency. This erosion of trust is not the result of facts, but of narratives strategically constructed and emotionally amplified online.
We cannot ignore the complicity of major platforms in this process. Despite years of warnings, companies like Meta, Google and X have:
- Delayed responses to election-related disinformation.
- Underfunded content moderation in non-English languages.
- And refused transparency about how algorithms influence public opinion.
In Brazil, civil society organizations like SaferNet, InternetLab and Democracia em Xeque have demanded accountability. But change remains slow because the incentive structures of these platforms prioritize engagement over safety, profit over democracy. We must insist: Free speech is not a license to destroy the very foundations of democratic life. So, what can we do? Neither censorship nor naïve optimism will suffice.
We need action on at least three levels:
- Regulation: Governments must create legal frameworks that ensure platform accountability, especially during elections. But these regulations must be grounded in human rights, not political revenge.
- Digital education: Citizens, especially youth, must be equipped with critical tools to navigate digital ecosystems, detect manipulation, and participate responsibly in public debate.
- Global coordination: The UN, regional bodies, and transnational coalitions must push for binding norms of digital governance, focused on transparency, equity, and linguistic diversity.
We must also support independent journalism, protect whistleblowers, and strengthen civic institutions. Technology alone cannot save democracy, but without democratic oversight, technology can destroy it. Let me end with a note of hope. The future of democracy will not be decided only in parliaments or courtrooms. It will be decided in feeds, threads, and group chats, where millions of people learn, decide, and act every day. We must reclaim these spaces, not through fear, but through collective imagination. Democracy is not only about protecting institutions, but also about preserving dignity, fostering empathy, and building trust, even in disagreement. And in that effort, we all have a role to play, as scholars, educators, policy makers, platform designers, and citizens of a shared, fragile world.