Fluffy clouds waft across a blue sky as users log in; while they chat with friends, gospel music plays: Welcome to FaceGloria, a social network for Brazilian Evangelical Christians.
The new Web site bears a passing resemblance to Facebook.
However, FaceGloria, which has attracted 100,000 users in its first month, was set up to serve those who find billionaire entrepreneur Mark Zuckerberg’s version “sinful.”
Photo: AFP
There is no “like” button on FaceGloria; users click “Amen.”
“On Facebook, you see a lot of violence and pornography. That is why we thought of creating a network where we could talk about God, love and to spread his word,” cofounder Web designer Atilla Barros told reporters.
It started three years ago, when Barros and three other self-described devout Christians who work in the office of the mayor of Ferraz de Vasconcelos, a municipality near Sao Paulo, decided there was a market for a squeaky-clean version of Facebook.
Given that an estimated 42 million of Brazil’s 202 million people are Evangelical Christians — and the Protestant movement continues to make inroads into traditionally dominant Catholicism — they might be right.
With help from the Ferraz de Vasconcelos mayor’s own pocket, they set up a business with about US$16,000 in startup money and FaceGloria was born.
Anyone can sign up to FaceGloria.com, but if they do, they better mind how they behave.
Swearing is banned — there is a list of about 600 forbidden words — as is any violent or erotic content, or photographic or video depictions of “homosexual activity.”
“We want to be morally and technically better than Facebook. We want all Brazilian Evangelicals to shift to FaceGloria,” Barros said.
Behind the scenes, more than 20 volunteers patrol online to cull bad language and to decide whether to allow potentially risque selfies and bikini shots. Even pictures showing tobacco and alcohol get scrutinized for possible removal.
However, the morality patrol does not have a hard job.
“Our public does not publish these kinds of photographs,” said volunteers Daiane Santos, 26, who spends six hours a day patrolling FaceGloria — in addition to his job in the town’s commerce department.
Evangelical Christians, who made up 6 percent of Brazil’s population in 1980, now make up 22 percent, while the Catholic total has dropped from 90 percent to 63 percent. Evangelical Christians are expected to become the majority by 2040 and FaceGloria hopes to ride the wave.
“Evangelical Christians have spread because of the intense urbanization over the past 50 years,” Sao Paulo Catholic University religion expert Edin Abumanssur said. “The Pentecostal message which is preached in the outskirts of cities and the favelas puts a lot of emphasis on the individual as being responsible for his behavior if he wants help from God, too. This kind of faith works well in cities.”
Barros expects FaceGloria to become Brazil’s go-to online site.
“In two years, we hope to get to 10 million users in Brazil. In a month, we have had 100,000 and in two we are expecting a big increase thanks to a mobile app,” he said.
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