On April 16, 2021, a man in a black jacket was seen among the iFood delivery drivers who were on strike in front of the Pacaembu stadium in São Paulo. He had a sticker on his cap, another on his face shield, as well as a three-meter-long banner and packs of stickers to distribute. All of them said the same thing: "Vaccines for app delivery drivers now".
It looked like a motorcycle courier, but according to theAgência Públicarevealed,he was an employee of a digital monitoring agency serving a campaign contracted by iFood. The company's idea was to raise the issue of vaccines to undermine the demands of the strike.It worked: on that day, part of the pressreportedthat the delivery drivers were asking for vaccines.
The scene opens "The iFood hidden propaganda machine",reportby Clarissa Levy for thePublic, April 2022. Based on over 30 documents and accounts from those involved in the project, the investigation described how the Benjamin Communication and Social QI (SQi) agencies had operated, between 2020 and 2021, a "backdoor" campaign against the "Apps".
A guiding document summarized the rule: "NEVER sign as iFood so that no one suspects".In a recorded meeting, obtained by the report, Benjamin advertisers assessed that "Não Breca Meu Trampo" "accomplished a mission" in weakening Paulo Lima, the leader of the Anti-Fascist Deliverers.iFood denied any relationship with SQi and stated that it does not condone fake profiles. The agencies contested the report at the time.
iFood cannot interfere in delivery drivers' strikes.
This week, the case reached a new stage, as reported bythe Federal Public Prosecutor's Office (MPF) on Tuesday, September 29th.The Federal Public Prosecutor's Office (MPF) on Tuesday, September 29th.iFood has donated R$ 3 million to the National Council for Scientific and Technological Development (CNPq) to fund research as part of a Term of Adjustment of Conduct (TAC) that the company, Benjamim, and SQi signed on July 7, 2023, with the Ministério Público Federal (MPF) and the Ministério Público do Trabalho (MPT) to close three investigations opened as a result of a complaint fromPúblico.
Despite accepting the agreement, iFood does not recognize the conduct and repeats this in thepage that it maintains about the TAC: states that "it has not committed any of the investigated conduct" and that it signed the TAC to avoid a "long and exhausting" process.
The TAC is divided into three axes: satisfaction, non-repetition, and compensation. According to the MPF, the first two were "largely" fulfilled.
The joint public statement came first. According to the iFood's own registration, it appeared on the company's website on July 10, 2023, on the homepage ofFolha de S.Pauloon July 16 and, between July 18 and August 5, on alternating days, on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter.
Subsequently, came the campaign on the right to information and the freedom of expression of the delivery drivers, with three months of weekly posts on the official iFood profiles, created with Benjamim and with reach measured by SQi. The proposal was delivered to the prosecutors in September 2023. The MPF informs that the campaign was carried out.
In the non-repetition axis, iFood indicated three human rights consulting firms in August 2023. The Public Prosecutor's Office (MPF) chose one in October, and the contract was completed in December. The consulting firm is responsible for developing an internal program to identify risks to transparency and freedom of expression in the company's activities, with semiannual reports to the MPF for two years. The MPF states that this measure is unprecedented in TACs and that the program is "under monitoring." For six months, iFood was also prohibited from advertising its own measures to respect the right to strike.
Other obligations do not have a deadline to be fulfilled.Before the MPT, iFood committed not to block, suspend, or deactivate delivery drivers for participating in strikes or unions, not to use "agents or technological instruments" to interfere in demonstrations, and not to reward those who refuse to participate in strikes.Benjamim and SQi assumed similar commitments. Each violated obligation generates a fine of R$ 50,000 per month, up to R$ 500,000 per year.
Money will go to research on the work of delivery drivers and the responsibility of platforms.
The compensation axis is the one that moves the slowest.The TAC has set the value that iFood must invest in research on three topics at $6 million: delivery worker relationships, the advertising market, and platform responsibility.The agreement does not set a deadline for choosing who will manage the money, but it stipulates that, once the choice is made, the transfer will occur within 15 business days. The first disbursement arrived three years and two months after the signing and corresponds to half of the total.
The CNPq should launch, still this semester, the public call to select researchers. The projects are divided into two fronts: regulation of advertising and digital marketing, and platform responsibility regarding false content about public health, the environment, and democracy. The research should be completed by July 2030, with public results.