# Twitter joke masquerades as fundraising campaign

- Link: https://fundraising.co.uk/2011/01/05/twitter-joke-masquerades-fundraising-campaign/
- Published: 2011-01-05T13:34:22+00:00
- Author: Howard Lake

**Socia media sites like Twitter and Facebook make it remarkably easy for people
to share details of charity and fundraising campaigns. Not surprisingly, this facility
can be and has been hijacked.**

One prominent example occurred during the 2010 World Cup. Brazilian broadcaster 
Galvão Bueno, who was commenting on the matches, was the subject of a campaign on
Twitter by people who didn’t like his style. They tweeted “CALA BOCA GALVAO” which
means “Shut up Galvao”. This became a trending topic in Brazil during the opening
ceremony of the World Cup, and then increased further in popularity and became one
of the most mentioned phrases on Twitter anywhere in the world.

Many people wondered what the phrase meant and somehow the joke response emerged,
and was retweeted, that the Galvao was an endangered bird in Brazil and people were
fundraising to help ensure its survival.

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This was clearly enough for many people, who then retweeted this explanation in 
an effort to raise more funds for this ‘campaign’, much to the amusement of many
Brazilians. Indeed it must have been one of the biggest inside jokes to date, with
almost a whole country laughing at the ignorance and gullibility of people around
the world.

The [joke then took on a life of its own](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galvão_Bueno#Cala_a_boca_Galv.C3.A3o_.28Internet_meme.29)
with a Twitter account [@galvaoinstitute](https://twitter.com/galvaoinstitute), 
and a fundraising video:

It’s all a very enjoyable prank of course. But it does demonstrate how easy it is
for a fictitious fundraising campaign to be accepted, spread and endorsed on a global
scale. This was a joke: what if it had been intentionally fraudulent?

There’s no protection against such an attempt. We simply have to be vigilant. And
make use of our Portuguese to English dictionaries…

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