sweetblock | abraji

Inspired by Brazilian newspapers that printed cake recipes to protest government censorship during the country’s 1964-85 dictatorship, we create to the Brazilian Association of Investigative Journalism cryptographic cakes to identify and report government officials who have blocked Brazilian citizens on Twitter. 

The campaign came as Brazil’s media was once again being muzzled by the Bolsonaro government, with the country falling in the global ranking of freedom of the press.  

Why cakes 

During the military dictatorship that ruled Brazil for 21 years, journalists would publish cake recipes in place of articles censored by the government as a form of protest against censorship. The cakes became a symbol of resistance. 

Why NFT? 

By using non fungible-tokens, we ensure that each cake is certified and unique, registering and certifying the specific context of the block (the politician who blocked, who was blocked, and the reason behind it), and serving as a digital report. Once registered to the blockchain, each NFT is impossible to censor or erase.