The nonprofit plans to collect whistleblower leaks and partner with newsrooms to hold platforms accountable. But should journalists be picking sides?
Daniela Silva once led efforts to shape Brazilian legislation in favor of the messaging service WhatsApp. But after Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg scrapped Meta Platforms’ fact-checking program in January 2025, she decided to quit. Now, she’s working against the kind of influence she once helped wield.
Silva, alongside journalist Tatiana Dias and lawyer Luã Cruz, has launched the nonprofit Ctrl+Z to hold big tech companies accountable for practices they say harm consumers. As they say on their website: “An isolated case is just a case. Many cases become evidence.”
One of the backbones of their effort is the Digital Damage Archive, which will collect reports and connect victims of suspensions, blocks and rights violations by digital platforms with legal support. Journalists will also be able to consult it for data or human sources.
Another pillar is the anonymous whistleblower platform “Vaza Big Tech.” Co-launched on April 28 with the pro-consumer activist campaign Sleeping Giants Brasil, it’s designed to collect accounts from users and employees (whistleblowers) about company practices.
Silva said tech companies typically only change after insiders with ethical concerns raise their voice.
(left) Luã Cruz, Tatiana Dias (center) and Daniela Silva (right) tackle tumbler toys with the faces of Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerberg and Jeff Bezos during CTRL+Z opening (photo by Rebeca Figueiredo)
“We have a platform that is focused on protecting the confidentiality of these sources,” Silva told LatAm Journalism Review (LJR). Tech companies “are very powerful and very efficient in the way they communicate with the public and put us in a certain place of apathy toward their models.”
Ctrl+Z is part of a growing cohort of organizations using journalism to push for change. It does not consider itself a newsroom, but co-founder Tatiana Dias said the organization will turn the leaks it gathers into the basis for investigative reporting aimed at promoting accountability.
Tips will be vetted by a team of journalists and lawyers, then shared with partner outlets for joint investigation and publication, she said
“Working in coalitions also helps increase the reach and impact of investigations,” Dias told LJR. “We are 100% transparent. That’s on purpose. But that should be what any good technology journalism does.”
Silva said that the outlet is clear about its stance that big tech companies have caused significant harm to consumers, workers and democracy.
“That is our starting point. Our journalism operates from that position of accountability: it's our job to ask hard questions of those in power, and right now that means asking Big Tech,” she told LJR.
Both Dias and Silva object to being labeled as advocates or activists.
“What we do could be described as ‘advocacy journalism,’ but I’m not a big fan of these imported concepts, because good journalism has always been the kind that makes an impact,” Dias said to LJR.
Attempting to label journalism as “activist” is a common strategy used to try to silence journalists in courts, she said.
“That’s why we reject that label,” Dias said. “We practice journalism that is principled and transparent, but journalism nonetheless, conducted with technical skill and rigor.”
Rogério Christofolleti, an ethics professor at the Federal University of Santa Catarina, said that not even the most traditional media outlets believe in total impartiality and that is why sometimes it is necessary to champion larger causes.
“In my view, the problem isn’t that journalism takes a side, but that it projects an image of impartiality when it isn’t,” he told LJR. He cited The Washington Post’s slogan “Democracy Dies in Darkness,” as an example that champions one type of political system.
“Every company or organization has financial concerns and political preferences that influence, to a greater or lesser extent, the content it publishes. Failing to make this clear to the public is a form of betrayal,” he said.
Paula Bianchi, an editor at the pro-worker news agency Repórter Brasil, agrees. She said Ctrl+Z works more like the investigative branches of organizations such as Greenpeace, publishing their own stories or sharing them with publications.
“Partiality doesn’t bother me when it is backed by due journalistic process and rigorous reporting,” Bianchi told LJR. “All outlets, in a way, have some degree of a stance, so when an outlet tells you from which point of view it’s speaking I don’t see that as a problem.”
Another example of journalism that shares its point of view is Ponte Jornalismo, an outlet created in March 2014 by a group of journalists in São Paulo to exclusively cover public safety in Brazil from a human rights perspective.
Antônio Junior, also known as Junião, is a veteran cartoonist, journalist and programs director at Ponte. To him, that explicit point of view that everyone – and every outlet – has, is essential.“We want journalism that works as a mediator of debates, that brings in more people, that brings more voices, because we need emancipation,” he told LJR.
“We need to broaden discussions about public policies, especially in the areas of security and education, so that this society becomes less unequal,” he said. “Because in a society where there is racism, where there is gender violence, where there is class violence, as we have, how does democracy work?”
CTRL+Z is being guided by similar outlines, with a specific focus on impact.
“We need to go back to showing our value,” Dias said to LJR. “And measuring impact is a way to regain that trust and show people the transformative power of journalism.”
Both Silva and Dias explained that Ctrl+Z will measure impact by looking for concrete changes in society that occur as a result of its projects and publications, be it new bills, requests for investigations, changes in corporate policies, court decisions that set legal precedents, public demonstrations or significant shifts in understanding or behavior.
“We do not consider media mentions or going viral to be impactful: these are important aspects of our mobilization work, but they are not impactful,” Dias said to LJR.
For Repórter Brasil’s Bianchi, the space for in-depth investigative journalism is more important than ever.
“Even if it takes a stance with human-centered projects, I think that, in a country like Brazil, it is necessary,” she said.
Christofolleti, on the other hand, sees an even more interesting dynamic taking place.
“What I see as new about Ctrl+Z is that it goes beyond journalism and approaches a social engagement movement, which requires courage, planning and the ability to form alliances,” he said.
Silva agrees. For her, she said, movement building and rigorous journalism aren't contradictory. Instead, they can reinforce each other when journalists are transparent about their perspective from the outset.
