Social Justice and Internet: The Case of Controladoria-Geral Da União Facebook Page

To think justice issues from the dynamics of social interaction and public discussion generated in virtual social networks can be done by three approaches: according to the plans and dimensions of justice; as the perspective of non-formal education; and according to the interaction among the users. From the theoretical framework of postcolonial studies, particularly Boaventura de Souza Santos and Ramón Grosfoguel, we have analyzed the theories of justice, especially Nancy Fraser's three-dimensional theory - from which arises the public sphere discussion -, and the theories of social networks as interactional networks. By means of the Netvizz application, we have extracted posts and comments within the year 2013 from the Facebook page of Controladoria-Geral da União (the Office of the Comptroller-General in Brazil). For this case study, qualitative data have been analyzed in the semantic dimension, by a longitudinal analysis, and categorizing the posts and comments into cutouts based on time, origin, and content categorized in an MS Access database developed specifically for the purposes of this research. After analyzing the content, and its dynamics, we discuss how social networking sites such as Facebook configures a public sphere that enables public debate about justice issues, as well as debate between the public power and network users, in ways that will be presented in this research.