Patrícia Campos Mello is a special reporter for Folha de S.Paulo and a commentator for TV Cultura. She covers technology, international relations, and human rights. She is the recipient of the Maria Moors Cabot Prize from Columbia University, the International Press Freedom Award, the Gabo Foundation Award for Excellence, the Vladimir Herzog Special Award, the King of Spain Journalism Award, and the Red Cross Humanitarian Journalism Award.

She holds a degree in Journalism from the University of São Paulo (USP) and a master’s degree from New York University (NYU). She was also a visiting researcher at Columbia University.

Since 2014, she has investigated disinformation campaigns, public opinion manipulation, and technology regulation. Her reporting has led to changes in Brazil’s electoral regulations. She is the author of Máquina do Ódio (“Hate Machine”), published by Companhia das Letras, which examines the use of social media to manipulate voters in Brazil, India, and the United States.

In recent months, she has covered the fall of Assad in Syria, Israel’s war in Lebanon, and the frontlines in eastern Ukraine. She has reported multiple times from Syria, Iraq, Turkey, Libya, Lebanon, Ukraine, and Kenya on war and refugee crises. She is also the author of Lua de Mel em Kobane (“Honeymoon in Kobane”), published by Companhia das Letras, a true story about a Syrian couple surviving the siege by ISIS, whom she met in Syria.

Patrícia was the only Brazilian reporter to cover the Ebola epidemic in Sierra Leone in 2014 and 2015, and she reported on the COVID-19 pandemic from public hospitals. She served as the Washington correspondent for O Estado de S. Paulo from 2006 to 2010, covering the U.S. elections in 2008, 2012, 2016, 2020, and 2024, as well as India’s elections in 2014, 2019, and 2024, the war in Afghanistan in 2009, and the September 11 attacks in New York.