Following the publication of our report on the distribution of official advertising that the Government of San Juan granted to a series of provincial media outlets at the end of 2024 (5 billion pesos, mostly distributed among five newspapers), we were attacked by bots, which forced us to close our account. In a province without a public information access law, we will continue to publish data we consider relevant, even if it bothers some. We continue to publish investigations on direct contracting without public bidding to businesspeople close to the current administration and other information of public interest. Among other topics of great relevance to San Juan, we closely follow the water crisis with first-hand technical and political information. And most importantly, it was a behavior of high economic value that someone must have paid for to make it happen. By La Mecha (San Juan). It is easy nowadays to believe that we all have freedom of expression, that speaking is free, that anyone can say anything. We also knew it could bring consequences. We also cover territorial conflicts of indigenous peoples and tell numerous stories that are part of the life of our province. We do what we love and are convinced of it, like many of our colleagues working in other media. Thus, on February 12 at 10 a.m., we published a carousel in our feed summarizing the main data of an investigation that touches the interests of various sectors: the provincial government, media companies, and political consulting firms with a high degree of power in the province. Sixteen minutes after the post was made, our professional Instagram profile began to be besieged by hundreds of followers increasing by the second. Even though this caused tensions and closed doors for us, we accompanied this conflict as well as others that occurred during that period. We did not look the other way. With the change of the provincial government at the end of 2023, our journalistic attitude remained firm. Because if something demonstrates this crude and desperate maneuver, it is that the discussion is not only about numbers, but also about who can tell them. But in reality, those of us who decided to go into journalism know that this is not true. After much doubt and internal discussion, on February 11 we decided to publish in our medium an unprecedented report detailing the amounts of official advertising that the Government of San Juan granted to a series of provincial media outlets at the end of 2024. But this is not the first time we have caused discomfort. La Mecha is a cooperative media outlet that was born in 2021 during the administration of former governor Sergio Uñac. Our commitment is to quality journalism, our readers, and our work. We recognize that the attack we suffered is an act of censorship, of discipline, but far from weakening us, these attempts reinforce the conviction that public information must circulate, and ultimately, it is journalism that always achieves it. Today, we are seven people who make up the cooperative and dedicate ourselves to different tasks. And most importantly, it was a behavior of high economic value that someone must have paid for to make it happen. As a result of an investigation carried out by a La Mecha journalist, the note was published on our website and had great reach during the night hours. With the time it takes to produce, design, and publish all the content we create, the post for Instagram—the platform with the greatest reach and interaction with our audience—was postponed until the next morning. At that time, we were one of the first media to publicize the struggle of self-convened teachers, which later became massified, generating massive demonstrations and strikes. Beyond our hypotheses, we decided that it would be up to the Justice system to track down those responsible. We knew our report would have an impact. But they were not followers of flesh and blood: they were bot accounts. What are bots? In this case, for example, they commented on La Mecha's publication with messages like "System failure, purchase of messages" or "France, active virus system." Just twenty minutes after it was published, the carousel had surpassed a thousand comments. Seeing that the operation had no intention of stopping and concerned about our account—which we had cultivated for 5 years of slow and steady growth—we decided to archive the publication. We cover the human rights, gender, and many other social causes agenda that are not always a priority for other media. The behavior of the wave of bots was a coordinated, artificial, and massive behavior with the objective of lowering our publication through soft and contemporary methods of censorship. In addition, we limited comments, restricted interactions, and finally, as a last measure, we closed our public account. We know that platforms are the terrain of the Zuckerbergs of this world, but for many of us, they function as a work tool. The behavior of the wave of bots was a coordinated, artificial, and massive behavior with the objective of lowering our publication through soft and contemporary methods of censorship. They are automated accounts, digital profiles created and programmed to perform repetitive actions without the need for human intervention.
