BYD and Alexandre Baldy sue AutoPapo; Boris Feldman denounces attempted censorship and aggressive tactics unprecedented in his 60 years of journalism
BYD and its vice president Alexandre Baldy filed a lawsuit against AutoPapo for an article published on 12/03/2025 – BYD’s Brazilian VP denies the brand’s Chinese origin. Before, both the automaker and the executive, through an extra-judicial notification, tried to censor the work of the press by demanding that this content be taken down.
BYD’s and Baldy’s stance breaks a paradigm in the automotive press. The publisher of AutoPapo, journalist and engineer Boris Feldman, recalls that, in 60 years of experience in the sector, he had never experienced such a situation.
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“My story is guided by consumer protection. Articles published by me have already paralyzed sales of new cars and, even so, I have never suffered any attempt at censorship and intimidation like this”, says Boris Feldman categorically.
Those who follow the news of the automotive sector already know that using the courts to try to control journalistic work is a practice already adopted by BYD in China. The automaker’s own communication director in Brazil, Pablo Toledo, shared on his Linkedin profile a post in which he celebrates the practice with enthusiasm and makes it clear that they are willing to use the Brazilian courts to regulate what is convenient to be in the media.
Curiously, while the head of the communication department and his executives put themselves on the ‘boom’ and in the role of ombudsman wanting to regulate what the press publishes, the tactic is the opposite when they want to defend BYD’s interests, with communiqués and content on social networks attacking in a virulent way.
Boris Feldman himself was the victim of an offensive post – appealing to ageism – on the personal profile of one of the heads of the Chinese automaker’s Public Relations department, deleted in the face of negative repercussions.
Not only journalists are in the sights of BYD’s PR department: competitors themselves and their executives are targets of attacks through social networks, which are echoed by influencers sponsored by it and media outlets that only want a “clickbait” audience.
Perhaps supported by its great financial power, BYD wants to appear disruptive in its actions and is not afraid to break rules. At the São Paulo Motor Show last year, the automaker disrespected the rules established by the organization of the event and promoted the launch of a new model, in addition to having a show on a day open to the public.
It is important that BYD’s leaders, especially in the Public Relations area, remember, as journalists they were, the famous phrase by Millôr Fernandes: “Journalism is opposition, the rest is a warehouse of dry and wet goods”.
