Brazil lived under a strict military dictatorship for 21 years, when the government tried to control all media outlets. To protest censorship, journalists would publish cake recipes in place of articles censored by the government. The cakes became a symbol of resistance.

Today, freedom of speech is threatened again. Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro and his subordinates attack journalists constantly, and always try to find new ways to discredit traditional media.

In an attempt to control narratives, politicians have been using their personal social media accounts, especially Twitter, as their main communications channel with the population.

But they are also using social media to silence critics, by blocking journalists and everyone who uses the platforms to criticize their measures and administration. So Abraji – the Brazilian Association of Investigative Journalism – and digital news outlet Congresso em Foco teamed up to find out more about this new kind of censorship.

SweetBlock is a one-of-a-kind platform that uses generative imagery and blockchain technology to visualize and record political censorship.

It starts by monitoring the Twitter accounts of over 600 politicians, flagging any that have added you to their blocked list.

If a block is identified, you are invited to answer a couple of questions to generate an NFT cake –inspired by the cake recipes of the past.

The cake's shape depends on the politician who blocked you: if you were blocked by a congressman, the cake will be square. The reason for the block defines the cake’s frosting, and your occupation defines the cake’s texture. Over 40,000 combinations are possible.

WHY NFT?

Non-fungible tokens ensure that each cake is certified and unique, like a 'digital report' that registers who was blocked, who blocked, and the reason behind it. Once registered to the blockchain, each NFT is impossible to censor or erase.

SweetBlock is both a data gathering tool and a data visualization tool. Every user who connected to the platform and was blocked by at least one public official on Twitter was recorded on our database, along with the context for the block (who was blocked, who blocked, the reason for the block, and the occupation of the blocked user).

The data gathered was also used to make a unique NFT cake. Any digital art that has an NFT can only have one owner: in our case, the owners were the @ of the users who were blocked.

In short, every piece of NFT art was created based on a specific set of data. The art also displayed that data clearly, and was extremely targeted, as it belonged and was created for a single person, who could then share it on their Twitter account.

The campaign began with journalists who worked for our clients – Abraji and Congresso em Foco –, most of whom have been blocked by politicians on Twitter. On the day of the launch, they shared their digital arts, inviting followers to access SweetBlock.

We started gathering data as soon as people connected with our platform. If it finds blocks on your account, it invites you to share your NFT Cake on Twitter; if not, to share the project.

The NFTs created for blocked users are generated instantly, using generative design. The arts also clearly displays the data used to create it: the @ of the art owner, who blocked him, the reason for the block and the user’s occupation.

On our website, there’s a gallery of all NFTs created.

After weeks of data gathering, our clients used that knowledge to create articles and infographics about social media blocking by politicians.

Journalists of the largest TV, internet and radio media outlets in Brazil, like Globo, UOL, Band, Yahoo, CBN, Folha de São Paulo and Estadão (the newspaper that started the cake recipes protest during the dictatorship) engaged in the campaign. Journalists from independent channels, like El País and The Intercept, also created and shared their NFT cakes. Journalists who survived the military dictatorship also found out that they are blocked. In addition to journalists, people in 50+ other occupations created their digital art.

Of the users who connected to SweetBlock, 35% were blocked by at least one public official.

In the first days of the campaign, the website was accessed in all 26 Brazilian states and state capitals, in addition to 44 other countries –even though it is a local platform. The website has a 75% engagement rate. Most importantly, people are now more vigilant to authoritarian behavior from public officials.