Table Caption
UFO Over Magé, Brazil Sparks Social Media Panic and Conspiracies - VICE
Saturday, May 23, 2020
12:00 PM
Clipped from: https://www.vice.com/en_asia/article/pkyy5g/ufo-over-mage-brazil-sparks-social-media-panic-and-conspiracies
This article originally appeared on VICE US.
Brazilians
in
the
municipality
of
Magé,
just
north
of
Rio
de
Janeiro,
reported
seeing
mysterious
illuminated
objects
in
the
sky
Wednesday.
Several
videos
of
the
objects
exploded
on
Reddit
and
Twitter,
sparking
incredible
speculation
about
a
crashed
UFO
that
has
been
picked
up
widely in the Brazilian press.
Magé
began
to
trend
on
Twitter
Wednesday
morning
when
several
people
began
sharing
videos
of
glowing
lights
in
the
sky.
The
videos
show
blue, red and yellow orbs moving around the sky, and one video shows the lights arranged in a triangular formation.
While
the
videos
themselves
are
curious,
though
hardly
evidence
of
anything
otherworldly,
UFO
enthusiasts
began
to
fall
down
the
conspiratorial
rabbit
hole
rather
quickly
when
posts
about
the
event
began
disappearing
on
Twitter.
As
the
event
began
to
gather
digital
steam,
the
#MageUFO
hashtag
began
to
swell
with
posts,
then,
suddenly,
vanished.
Meanwhile,
on
the
r/UFOs
Reddit
page,
posts
concerning
the
Brazilian
UFOs
also
began
to
disappear.
Crying
foul,
users
began
to
accuse
both
Twitter
and
the
moderators
of
the
r/UFOs
subreddit
of
censorship. Twitter did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Threads
and
comments
about
the
UFOs
were
deleted
from
the
r/UFOs
subreddit;
in
a
post,
a
moderator
said
that
“I
see
a
lot
of
stupidity
in
this
thread,
so
let
me
just
make
it
absolutely
clear:
mods
here
do
not
censor.
If
a
post
is
stupid
or
offensive
it
will
be
removed.
If
it
is
a
hoax,
we'll
remove
it.”
That
moderator
has
been
pilloried
in
the
comments,
with
dozens
of
redditors
suggesting
that
perhaps
the
subreddit
for
UFOs
is
where
they
should
be
allowed
to
talk
about
a
UFO
event
that
had
thousands
of
eyewitnesses
and
dozens
of
videos
posted.
People
wanting
to
discuss the event have moved on to r/aliens in the meantime.
To
make
matters
worse,
users
began
posting
a
Google
Maps
link
showing
a
satellite
image
of
part
of
Magé,
suggesting
a
vast
conspiracy
and
Google coverup. It looks like this, which is unfortunate for Google:
A
white
image
glitch
in
the
shape
of,
well,
a
flying
saucer,
seems
to
appear
in
a
wooded
area
north
of
Rio
de
Janeiro.
Google
Maps
satellite
images are not updated instantly, of course, so this is an old image. A Google spokesperson explained to Motherboard what is going on here:
“In
this
case,
what
people
are
seeing
in
the
imagery
is
a
reflection
that
is
temporarily
overloading
the
satellite's
sensor,”
the
spokesperson
said.
“Essentially,
the
sun
reflected
off
the
surface
of
that
building
at
just
the
right
angle
to
briefly
blind
the
satellite.
This
is
a
pretty
common
phenomenon known as saturation or blooming.”
While
the
Brazilian
press
reports
that
no
one
reported
these
objects
to
local
authorities,
allegations
of
loud
explosions
and
gunshots,
the
Brazilian
military
cordoning
off
the
area,
and
army
personnel
arresting
anyone
trying
to
get
close
to
the
supposed
crash
site
have
taken
over
Twitter and the r/Aliens subreddit.
Typical
internet
lunacy
aside,
Brazil
has
been
a
long
time
hotspot
for
some
pretty
interesting
UFO
incidents.
In
1957,
journalist
Ibrahim
Sued
received
an
envelope
containing
small
bits
of
metal
from
an
anonymous
source
claiming
that
they
were
debris
from
Ubatuba,
a
beach
resort
town,
where
an
alleged
UFO
had
crashed.
Though
not
otherworldly
in
origin,
the
fragments
were
a
highly
pure
magnesium.
It
is
unclear
where
the
metal
came
from
and
still
remains
a
mystery.
The
infamous
Colares
UFO
flap
of
1977
made
headlines
when
locals
on
the
island
of
Colares
began
reporting
strange
objects
in
the
sky
and
bizarre
injuries
to
their
bodies.
According
to
researcher
and
computer
scientists
Jacques
Vallee,
several
individuals
were
allegedly
killed
by
the
objects
witnessed
on
the
island.
Reports
of
radiation
and
thermal
burns,
as
well
as
strange
scars,
fill
the
Brazilian
government’s
file
on
the
incident.
After
a
formal
investigation,
the
government
concluded
that
it
found
no
evidence
of
unusual
phenomena.
One
of
the
most
bizarre
cases
occurred
in
1996
when
several
people
claimed
to
witness
a
strange
alien
creature
roaming
the
streets
of
Varginha
City.
Looking
like
“the
devil,”
the
large
headed
brown
skinned
5
foot
tall
being
was
first
spotted
by
three
women
on
a
January
afternoon.
Several
other
sightings
were
reported,
and
even
the
Wall
Street
Journal
picked
up
the
story.
Silly
as
it
may
sound,
it
still
exists
as
one
of Brazil’s most famous cases.
While
this
latest
Brazlian
UFO
incident
will
most
likely
join
the
countless
other
UFO
mysteries
that
haunt
South
America’s
skies,
skeptics
have
argued that the lights over Magé were simply skydivers equipped with pyrotechnics, chinese lanterns, or drones.