Personal stuff

Every Friday I listen to Foro de Teresina, a Brazilian politics podcast by piauí magazine, and every Friday the same question bugged me: who has won the most rounds of Kinder Ovo, the guessing game that closes the show? One weekend I decided to find out and built kinderovo.com, a pipeline that transcribes the whole archive, finds the segment in each episode, and tallies the winners. I wrote a short note about it on my blog.

I sent the link to the hosts, and they read my message on air, walked through the site live, and were very kind about it. This is one of the biggest political podcasts in Brazil (4.9 stars from 38.5k ratings on Spotify, and this single episode has over 56k views on YouTube), so hearing my name in the middle of it was a lovely surprise. An even more welcome one came from Malu Gaspar, one of the finest journalists working in Brazil today, who is no longer on the podcast but praised the project on her own social media and followed me on Twitter. That is a follow I will keep with a lot of pride and responsibility.

Vorcaro e Flávio, os bons companheiros

• Date: May 15, 2026
• Type: Podcast Mention
• Outlet: Foro de Teresina (piauí)
• Hosts: Fernando de Barros e Silva, Ana Clara Costa, Celso Rocha de Barros
• Listen: Spotify · YouTube

One day, I wrote a short thread on Twitter (now X) offering a solution to find your friends in the crowded Brazilian Carnival (if you’ve never been, it’s really crowded). It went viral — ~800k people saw it, and two journalists reached out to me to talk about it. The solution is based on a really cool company that divided the entire world into 3m x 3m squares and assigned each one a unique sequence of three words. All I did was connect the dots, and it seems people really liked the idea. 🙂

O aplicativo que ajuda a encontrar pessoas na multidão

• Date: February 20, 2023
• Outlet: Nexo
• Journalist: Lucas Zacari

Aplicativo ajuda a localizar ponto de encontro no Carnaval

• Date: February 19, 2023
• Outlet: Folha de S. Paulo
• Journalist: Pedro S. Teixeira

Academic Work

Since beginning my work as an undergraduate research assistant at the Social Computing Lab, I’ve had the opportunity to contribute to impactful efforts in the fight against misinformation in Brazil. One key project I worked on involved developing a tool that played a crucial role in helping journalists, researchers, and NGOs better understand the stories behind data we collected from WhatsApp and Telegram. By streamlining the analysis process, the tool supported the creation of over 30 articles published in prominent outlets, including The Guardian, Folha de S. Paulo, O Globo, The Intercept, BBC News, and many others.

Here are some selected articles where our work has been featured:

Não vamos parar: a reação de grupos bolsonaristas nas redes ao discurso de Bolsonaro

• Date: November 1, 2022
• Outlet: BBC
• Journalist: Juliana Gragnani

Como planos de bloqueio saíram de grupos de mensagem para as ruas

• Date: November 1, 2022
• Outlet: BBC
• Journalist: Juliana Gragnani

No 2º turno, Bolsonaro aposta em fake news que liga Lula ao crime organizado

• Date: October 11, 2022
• Outlet: Agência Pública
• Journalist: Laura Scofield

Eleições 2022: fake news sobre perseguição a evangélicos chegam a milhões via filhos e aliados de Bolsonaro

• Date: September 27, 2022
• Outlet: BBC
• Journalist: Julia Braun

Grupos bolsonaristas dominam redes com mentiras e críticas a pesquisas eleitorais

• Date: September 15, 2022
• Outlet: Agência Pública
• Journalist: Laura Scofield

TikTok e Kwai levam desinformação sobre urnas e Forças Armadas ao WhatsApp

• Date: September 12, 2022
• Outlet: Agência Pública
• Journalist: Laura Scofield

Grupos recorrem a pânico para mobilizar no WhatsApp e Telegram atos no 7 de Setembro

• Date: September 4, 2022
• Outlet: Estadão
• Journalist: Levy Teles

Com apoio de redes bolsonaristas, senadores reagem à ação do STF contra empresários

• Date: August 31, 2022
• Outlet: Agência Pública
• Journalist: Laura Scofield

Grupo armamentista apontado como danoso no Facebook convoca para o 7 de Setembro

• Date: August 26, 2022
• Outlet: Agência Pública
• Journalist: Laura Scofield

Menções ao 7 de Setembro explodem em grupos de mensagens e incluem teor golpista

• Date: August 9, 2022
• Outlet: Folha de São Paulo
• Journalist: Patrícia Campos Mello

POR QUE PESQUISAS ELEITORAIS TÊM RESULTADOS DIFERENTES?

• Date: August 11, 2022
• Outlet: Gabriela Prioli (YouTube)
• Journalist: Gabriela Prioli

Caráter eleitoral deve marcar Sete de Setembro em São Paulo

• Date: September 2, 2022
• Outlet: Valor Econômico
• Journalist: Cristiane Agostine

Grupos e projetos de pesquisa da UFMG se unem em defesa da cidadania e da democracia

• Date: September 1, 2022
• Outlet: UFMG
• Journalist: UFMG

O perigoso vale-tudo no submundo dos grupos do Telegram

• Date: April 8, 2022
• Outlet: Veja
• Journalist: Reynaldo Turollo Jr.

O tamanho do poder da família Bolsonaro no Telegram

• Date: April 9, 2022
• Outlet: Veja
• Journalist: José Benedito da Silva

Direita usa guerra para pintar Bolsonaro como ’líder mundial’ e parceiro de Putin

• Date: March 14, 2022
• Outlet: Carta Capital
• Journalist: Ana Flávia Gussen

Pelo fim do vale-tudo, o TSE fecha o cerco às milícias digitais

• Date: March 11, 2022
• Outlet: Carta Capital
• Journalist: Ana Flávia Gussen

Usando palco da CPI, senador governista Marcos Rogério vira “case de sucesso” nas redes

• Date: July 25, 2021
• Outlet: Agência Pública
• Journalist: Laura Scofield

Telegram tem domínio de canais bolsonaristas e risco de enxurrada de fake news em 2022

• Date: June 14, 2021
• Outlet: Folha de São Paulo
• Journalist: Patrícia Campos Mello

Pra onde escoam os vídeos mais toscos excluídos do YouTube?

• Date: May 6, 2021
• Outlet: UOL
• Journalist: Cristina Tardáguila

Venda de ivermectina aumenta nove vezes em Minas e preocupa por risco à saúde

• Date: April 5, 2021
• Outlet: O Tempo
• Journalist: Gabriel Rodrigues

Bot do Bandejão

One of my earliest projects, Bot do Bandejão, tackled a common problem faced by students at my university: deciding where to eat. The public restaurant system offered great options, but finding menus was often inconvenient. To address this, I developed a bot using Python, web scraping, and automation tools to collect and publish menus directly on Twitter.

This simple solution became a practical tool for over 6,000 students, making their lives a tiny bit easier. Its success and open-source nature inspired similar initiatives across Brazil, now helping more than 40,000 students at universities like USP, UFRJ, UFOP, and ITA. The bot even caught a little media’s attention:

O Bot do Bandejão: entenda melhor o caso

• Date: October 21, 2019
• Type: Podcast Interview
• Outlet: Rádio Terceiro Andar (Podcast)
• Interviewer: Yves Vieira

Estudante cria robô que posta cardápio dos RUs no Twitter)

• Date: October 7, 2019
• Type: Radio Live Interview
• Outlet: Rádio UFMG Educativa (104.5 FM)

Perfil no Twitter posta cardápio do bandejão automaticamente

• Date: September 24, 2019
• Type: Interview
• Outlet: UFMG Department of Communication