Jaime de Souza Filho, 33, discovered Folha at age 8 through school and became a devoted reader, posting over 4,000 comments. Diagnosed with autism at 31, he credits the newspaper with a sense of not being alone. His journey includes career shifts and critiques of comment moderation.
Jaime de Souza Filho, 33, first encountered Folha de S.Paulo at age 8 through school textbooks. By 10, he was emailing columnists, and as an adult, he deepened his engagement by posting over 4,000 opinions in the site's comments section. Born in João Dourado in Bahia's interior to a photographer father and housewife mother, he has always loved art. At 18, he worked on Bahia's coast observing humpback whales; at 20, he moved to Recife (PE), graduating in museology and cinema. He later relocated to São Paulo to teach English, citing boredom with his previous life.
At 31, he was diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder (TEA), which did not surprise him as he always felt different from peers. "Folha brought me a feeling of not being alone, because the columnists talked to me. Without it, I felt like a total alien, because other kids didn't want to talk about a conflict in Libya, but the columnists did," Jaime states. Initially reading via his sister's account, he got his own subscription in March 2019 through a student promotion. Of his 4,360 published comments, 154 were moderated for rule violations, leading to two three-month bans, the last in October 2025. "It was like a death to me," he describes the restriction period.
Jaime critiques the moderation: "I don't take my comments out of my brain, I add bibliographic references. It was unfair, shocking, bizarre. But I'm happy to be back. At the same time, it leaves a very bitter taste in the mouth, the censorship from a newspaper that claims to be plural." As a gay man, he regrets the lack of diversity among columnists and Veny Santos' departure, whose writing he calls "savory." Ideologically a humanist and human rights advocate, he claims there is no left in Brazil and that PT and PSOL are center-right. Without religion, he identifies with LaVeyan Satanism ideas, which he says defend humans against entities.
He praises Folha's pluralism but criticizes coverage of evangelical and Muslim topics for lacking critical sense: "It's a newspaper chasing a reader it will never have again. It's an abusive relationship." He also accuses the paper of trying to emulate Lula, whom he views as incoherent. Passionate about science reports, comics, and TV Folha productions, Jaime hopes for more secularism and focus on young readers.
