Members of the media may directly contact the following uOttawa academic experts:
Joao Velloso (English, French and Portuguese)
Associate Professor, Faculty of Law - Common Law Section.
The research interests of Professor Velloso, a native of Brazil, touch on policing and protest, criminology and social control, and criminal justice rights.
“Lula won in a major overturn in tendencies and vote distribution from the first round. He had the highest number of votes ever in Brazilian elections and a higher percentage than the previous election when he beat Flavio Bolsonaro’s father Jair. Lula won despite reported incidents aimed at disrupting the mobility of voters by police forces (with random stops) in states and municipalities led by Bolsonaro supporters and Bus companies (which also happened in the 2nd round of the 2022 elections). The Electoral Court (TSE) led by Supreme Court justices nominated by Jair Bolsonaro confirmed the results relatively quickly after the mathematical results were determined.”
Florian Martin-Bariteau (English and French)
Full Professor, Faculty of Law – Common Law Section; University Research Chair in Technology and Society; and Director of the Centre for Law, Technology and Society.
Professor Martin-Bariteau’s research focuses on technology law, ethics and policy, with a special interest in artificial intelligence, cybersecurity, whistleblowers and intellectual property.
He can touch on the role AI and social media companies like Meta played in the outcome (allegations of algorithmic bias, restrictions on political accounts, and the heavy use of generative AI to create fake audio, altered images, and deepfakes to influence voters).