Brazil’s first lady on Monday defended remarks she made about short-video app TikTok during a state dinner with Chinese President Xi Jinping in a move that departed from diplomatic convention and sparked furore in the South American country.
Acknowledging that she broke protocol during President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva’s visit to Beijing last week, Rosangela “Janja” da Silva said she “will not be silenced” when the safety of children is at stake.
The remarks she uttered in Beijing prompted an official response from TikTok, owned by Chinese tech giant ByteDance.
The formal dinner in which Xi hosted Lula and select Brazilian officials was not meant to include any official speeches, but the Brazilian president raised the topic of regulating digital platforms and asked if China could send an envoy to Brasilia to discuss the issue.
According to the Brazilian news website G1, Janja then asked to speak – a move said to have surprised even Brazilian aides – and criticised TikTok for “allowing harmful content to flourish”.
The first lady cited the death of an eight-year-old Brazilian girl who had inhaled aerosol during a so-called “deodorant challenge” that circulated on the app.
