Facebook kept Brazilians Informed of protests progress

Earlier this Summer Brazil had a series of very wild protests, sinking Brazil’s president Dilma Rousseff approval rating by 27% points in just about three weeks. The main complaints for these protests were in regards to the high cost of living, improvements in public transportation and the crazy amount the government is spending to host the FIFA World Cup next year.

In just one decade about 40 million Brazilians shifted from poverty into a road going to middle class, and now there is a series of social issues that are arising because of that. All of a sudden there is more focus on where all this tax money is going to. It is estimated that over 353 Brazilian cities were affected by these protests. Latin Field was running several face-to-face projects during this time, and it was a very challenging task. A Folha de Sao Paulo published a snapshot of the protesters in Sao Paulo as 53% being aged under 25, 71% being first-time protesters and 77% having higher education.

84% of people said that they kept updated about the protests via Facebook. With all of the recent growth in Brazil, and it becoming a very powerful economy, there is certainly a lot of social changes to come along with it. While Dilma Rousseff offered a package of reforms including investment of R$50 billion (about $23 billion) in city transport and increasing spending on education and health, there will likely still be a lot more focus on accountability of where tax money is going to and an overall willingness to increase the quality of life and social equality.

Full article:
http://www.forbes.com/sites/ricardogeromel/2013/07/02/protests-in-brazil-it-might-as-well-be-spring/