Disinformation and Narratives

An Analysis of Disinformation Verified by the "Fato ou Boato" Page During the 2022 Elections

Abstract

The aim of this article is to address the disinformation narrative employed by former President Bolsonaro and his supporters against the Superior Electoral Court (TSE) and the Brazilian electoral system during the 2022 elections. The analysis is conducted based on news debunked by the "Fato ou Boato" page, an initiative of the Permanent Program for Combating Disinformation at the TSE. Data was collected from August 17 to November 7, 2022, encompassing the beginning of the electoral period to the week after the second round, totaling 144 fact-checks categorized as follows: fraud, bias, persecution, neutral, submission, and collusion. The analysis rested on two hypotheses: the first focused on the temporal dynamics of disinformation and its relationship with the political climate. It was expected that the spread of disinformation would intensify in the days leading up to the elections as political tensions escalated, creating a conducive environment for the dissemination of misleading information. The second hypothesis related to the nature of the predominant disinformation. The anticipation was that the narrative of fraud in the electoral system would be the most prevalent, given the rhetoric surrounding the integrity of the elections. This suggests an attempt to influence public perception of the impartiality of the electoral process and the electoral justice system. The roadblocks, encampments questioning the election results, and the attacks on January 8 indicate a relative success in this anti-democratic endeavor.