Introduction
Ricardo Borges Martins shares how organisers at the communications lab, Quid, used powerful organising and digital strategies to build civic engagement and overcome the far right in Brazil. Ricardo presented this case study at FWD+Organise 2024, a conference hosted by Australian Progress in Naarm/Melbourne, Australia.
Ricardo shares how communities in Brazil have been countering authoritarianism and misinformation through digital organising at an unprecedented scale. Ricardo leads digital strategy at Quid, a communications lab dedicated to engaging and informing civil society across Brazil. His team has created a digital network that reaches 25 million people through social media and operates WhatsApp groups with over 50,000 members actively involved in civic discussions – all without an email list.
Below is a collation of lessons by the Commons librarians learned from Ricardo’s presentation with additional knowledge from two sources below by Pedro Telles, one of the co-founders of Quid alongside Ricardo.