Online disinformation has been a widespread phenomenon that has changed how people interact online and how politics is done in many countries, such as the United States and Brazil. Among the consequences, online disinformation can distort reality and influence how citizens see their political leader, creating identification and cultural meaning. Recently, far-right populist presidents have turned to social media platforms to engage in disinformation campaigns as a strategy to control the political narrative and gain power among their followers. Since Jair Messias Bolsonaro, former President of Brazil, had adopted Twitter/X as his main platform to communicate with the public, this study sought to analyze the content of his tweets to understand whether Bolsonaro promoted disinformation during the 2022 Brazilian general elections. We analyzed 245 tweets posted in August 2022 and 275 tweets posted in October 2022 and found that there was an increase on tweets sharing disinformation, from 50 (20%) to 113 (41.24%), including discrediting professional media and arousing hate. This study helps understand how social media has been used to boost multiple types of disinformation, and the speech strategies employed by Bolsonaro during his reelection campaign, verifying how disinformation was organized and shared on Twitter.
Content analysis; Brazil; Disinformation; Elections; Far-right
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Fonte: Elaborada pelos autores.
Fonte: Elaborada pelos autores.
Fonte:
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Fonte: Elaborada pelos autores.
Fonte: Elaborada pelos autores.
Fonte: Elaborada pelos autores.
Fonte: Elaborada pelos autores.