In this study, we investigate dysfunctional information sharing on WhatsApp and Facebook, focusing on two explanatory variables—frequency of political talk and cross-cutting exposure—and potential remedies, such as witnessing, experiencing, and performing social corrections. Results suggest that dysfunctional sharing is pervasive, with nearly a quarter reporting sharing misinformation on Facebook and WhatsApp, but social corrections also occur relatively frequently. Platform matters, with corrections being more likely to be experienced or expressed on WhatsApp than Facebook. Taken together, our results suggest that the intimate nature of WhatsApp communication has important consequences for the dynamics of misinformation sharing, particularly with regard to facilitating social corrections.

Este é um artigo de acesso aberto, licenciado por Creative Commons Atribuição 4.0 Internacional (CC-BY 4.0), sendo permitidas reprodução, adaptação e distribuição desde que o autor e a fonte originais sejam creditados. RESUMOAs eleições presidenciais de 2014 foram as mais acirradas desde a redemocratização do Brasil, exibindo reviravoltas em termos de intenções de voto e estratégias de campanha. O objetivo deste artigo é analisar o possível impacto das pesquisas de intenção de voto nas estratégias de campanha on-line no Facebook oficial dos três principais candidatos das eleições presidenciais de 2014. Fazemos uso de Análise de Conteúdo (AC) para avaliar como cada equipe utilizou diferentes estratégias comunicacionais na página do Facebook durante o primeiro turno das eleições e realizamos testes estatísticos para observar se as variações estratégicas são condizentes com as mudanças no cenário eleitoral apontadas pelas pesquisas de intenção de voto. Estamos especificamente interessados em observar em que medida as oscilações dos candidatos nas pesquisas afetam o tipo de comunicação estratégica no Facebook. Os resultados demonstram que há variação nas estratégias dos três candidatos ao longo da campanha do primeiro turno. Contudo, a posição do candidato nos levantamentos eleitorais não parece influenciar o uso de determinadas estratégias. Não obstante, defendemos que os nossos achados contribuem para a literatura corrente ao observar as campanhas digitais no contexto mais amplo da corrida eleitoral. O artigo aponta, ainda, para uma reconfiguração do papel de candidatos e eleitores no cenário das campanhas em redes sociais. Patrícia G. da Conceição Rossini, Érica A. Baptista, Vanessa V. de Oliveira, Rafael C. Sampaio 146 Vol. 18 Nº 2 -maio/agosto 2016 revista Fronteiras -estudos midiáticos ABSTRACT Brazil's 2014 presidential election was the toughest race since the country's redemocratization process. The competitive scenario captured by polls prompted candidates' to rethink their campaigning strategies. This paper aims to analyze the role of digital media in Brazil's 2014 presidential campaign by focusing on the influence of polling numbers on the candidates' communication strategies on Facebook. By comparing the candidates' messaging strategies during the race, this study analyzes how the competitive nature of the race affected the way the candidates used their Facebook accounts for campaigning. We are specifically interested in observing whether the candidates' oscillation in the polls -and their positions in the race -had an effect on the use of attack messages and advocacy messages. Our results demonstrate that the candidates' strategies changed during the race. However, their positions in the polls do not seem to influence their use of particular strategies. Our findings contribute to the field by bringing the broader context of the election to illuminate the analysis of the digital campaign. We also point to a reconfiguration of the roles of candidates and citizens in the ever changing context of digita...

The 2018 elections in Brazil highlighted the circulation of political information and the impacts of misinformation on the formation of public opinion. The decline in confidence in the news spread by the mainstream media was fertile ground for the rise of fake news, which played a major role in producing campaign content. In this context, the use of social networking sites (SNSs) and the WhatsApp mobile instant messaging service as a space for preference formation, small campaign committees and ideological polarization also drew attention. In this article, we examine the dynamics of political uses of WhatsApp, compared to the SNSs, particularly Facebook, with a focus on the relationship between misinformation and the formation of public opinion on politics, in the aftermatch the 2018 electoral scenario and its post-election reverberations. We were interested in observing social media consumption habits and the degree of exposure to fake news, as well as understanding the frequency and intentionality of fake news sharing by users. To this end, we use data from the national survey "WhatsApp as a source of political engagement and (mis) information in Brazil" (N = 1,615).

WhatsApp is one of the most used messaging platforms across the globe and is particularly prominent in the Global South. Despite being a private messaging app, WhatsApp is becoming an important platform for political information and political talk, which raises concerns about the spread of misinformation on the platform. This paper presents comprehensive descriptive results of a national survey of internet users in Brazil, focusing on political information on social media. Our data shows that Brazilians are very active social media users, particularly on Facebook and WhatsApp, and consider these platforms very important to fulfill a myriad of political and informational aims. However, they also demonstrate great concern about the quality and accuracy of information circulating online. Despite finding significant differences in how these two platforms are used, the data suggests that WhatsApp is becoming central to how Brazilians have access to and engage with politics.

Recently, major social media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter have announced efforts to counter "coordinated inauthentic behaviour." However, scholarly research continues to provide evidence that coordinated human and automated accounts covertly seek to undermine and manipulate public debates on these platforms. Given the difficulties in obtaining data from these platforms to study these influence operations, and the significant challenge of identifying covert malinformation operations, further conceptual and methodological innovations are required. This panel brings together a selection of recent studies that advance the methods available for the forensic, mixed-methods, in-depth, and large-scale analysis of inauthentic information operations: Paper 1 investigates the arson disinformation campaign during the 2019-2020 Australian bushfire season. Paper 2 investigates the distribution and content monetisation strategies of junk news sources across a selection of five major social media platforms during the 2019 European Parliament campaign. Paper 3 explores whether Facebook's microtargeting advertising functionality allows political parties to promote conflicting narratives to different groups of people. Paper 4 studies the experience and engagement with malinformation by users of Facebook and WhatsApp, focussing on the current political environment in Brazil.