Disinformation in the 2022 Elections in Brazil

the lies spread by Bolsonaro’s supporters on social media

Authors

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.34629/cpublica.832

Keywords:

disinformation, social media, Brazil, elections, far-right

Abstract

Although the use of disinformation is not new in political campaigns, the popularization of the Internet has allowed the establishment of networks for the production and distribution on a massive scale of untruthful content aimed at favoring or damaging a candidate or an argument. The fake news phenomenon is behind the elections of Donald Trump in 2016 and Jair Bolsonaro in 2018. In this article, we analyze 130 pieces of disinformation disseminated on social networks and instant messaging apps by supporters of the former Brazilian president during his failed campaign for re-election in 2022. The data was collected by the Contra Fake project, which established a system to combat disinformation, described here. From the data, we identified thematic and temporal patterns in the use of fake news by Bolsonaro. We also note that the work was not continued after the elections.  

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Author Biography

  • Lucas Rohan Machado, Instituto de Comunicação da Nova

    Lucas Rohan Machado graduated in Social Communication with a major in Journalism in 2009 from the University of the Campanha Region (Urcamp), has a master's degree in New Media and Web Practices from the Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities of the Nova University of Lisbon (FCSH/UNL) in 2017 and is currently studying for a PhD in Communication Sciences at the same university, affiliated to the Nova Communication Institute (ICNOVA) and funded by the Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT). He has 20 years' professional experience in journalism, including radio, television and internet reporting and editing, press relations and academia. He is a journalism lecturer (on leave) at Urcamp, where he supervised 4 final year papers in 2017 and 2018. In Brazil, he published the book “New Media, New Politicians” (Editora Porto de Ideias), about the use of Twitter by politicians in four countries.

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Published

2024-12-13

Issue

Vol. 19 No. 37 (2024): Number with Special Issue

Section

SPECIAL ISSUE: Digital culture: mediatization, surveillance and public space

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How to Cite

Disinformation in the 2022 Elections in Brazil: the lies spread by Bolsonaro’s supporters on social media. (2024). Comunicação Pública, 19(37). https://doi.org/10.34629/cpublica.832