SweetBlock is a one-of-a-kind platform that uses generative imagery and blockchain technology to visualize, record and protest against political censorship. Our platform monitors over 600 Twitter accounts of elected politicians, pointing out how they’ve been using social media blocking to silence critics. The platform gathers data on each individual block and turns that into digital artwork that belongs to that specific Twitter user, who is then invited to share the art on their Twitter feed. This user journey effectively turns each participant who engaged in the campaign into an influencer, and was a fundamental part of the campaign.

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.

Our audience was comprised mostly of Brazilian journalists, but expanded naturally to include all Brazilian Twitter users, because politics is a hot topic in this social network, and public officials blocking citizens of various occupations is becoming more frequent. Every single person who logged in to our platform fed our database.

The NFT cake is a thumb-stopping way of directing the user's attention to an extremely serious subject.

Our platform points out how politicians are using social media blocking to silence critics and opposers, creating a unique tool to fight that behavior with data and foundation.

Every user who created a cake was then invited to share it on their timelines, turning the individual tweets of all who responded to our call to action into media for the campaign.

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 artwork, 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 for blocked users are created instantly, using generative design. The artwork also clearly displays the data used to create it: the @ of the 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.

Brazil lived under a strict military dictatorship from 1964 to 1985. During that period, the government tried to control all media, and the largest newspapers were watched closely. It was very common for censors to blue-pencil articles that were ready to be published. So journalists from that time found a creative and subtle way to warn readers that something was wrong: in place of the censored articles, they would publish cake recipes. The printed cakes ended up becoming a symbol of resistance and freedom of speech that is still well-known today.

SweetBlock is inspired by that protest created by journalists from the dictatorship period, and has updated it for current times, when freedom of speech is again threatened in the country by an extremist government. Instead of printed newspaper, Twitter. Instead of cake recipes, NFT cakes.