Rio de Janeiro (AFP)
A Brazilian YouTuber, followed by more than 34 million netizens, has been targeted for "all kinds of" threats, including death, since supporting the LGBT cause at the Rio de Janeiro book biennial.
Felipe Neto, a 31-year-old comedian, has received "anonymous messages" and is due to make a statement to the police, his spokesperson told AFP on Tuesday.
Citing an "imminent risk", he canceled Monday his participation in a meeting on education. He announced in a tweet having sent his mother abroad, she being like him "threatened with death".
"It is shocking that in Brazil, in 2019, an individual is prevented from expressing himself and fighting against (...) censorship and oppression without being threatened," Neto said in a statement.
His criticism of Jair Bolsonaro's policy has earned him constant attacks from supporters of the far-right president, but hostilities have taken the upper hand this month after Neto bought and distributed 14,000 copies of LGBT-themed books free of charge. International Biennial of the Book of Rio de Janeiro.
He intended to protest against the will of the mayor of the city, the pastor of an evangelical church Marcelo Crivella, to censor a cartoon showing a kiss between two men at the beginning of the month.
After various twists and turns, the Brazilian Supreme Court overturned a court order authorizing the ultra-conservative mayor to seize the copies of "Avengers, the crusade of children", the American giant Comics, Marvel.
On social networks, Felipe Neto became the target of a campaign with the keywords #PaisContraFelipeNeto (#ParentsContreFelipeNeto), with reference to the children and teenagers who make up the public of his YouTube channel.
"Whoever says that my content has a bad influence on young people, has not seen my channel, has no idea," defended the comedian in a recent video, "I will continue to struggle (.. .) against obscurantism and oppression by all means ".
© 2019 AFP