2023
DOI: 10.1177/20563051231160632
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How Disinformation on WhatsApp Went From Campaign Weapon to Governmental Propaganda in Brazil

Abstract: The popular encrypted messaging and chat app WhatsApp played a key role in the election of Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro in 2018. The present study builds on this knowledge and showcases how the app continued to be used in a governmental operation spreading false and misleading information popularly known in Brazil as the Office of Hatred (OOH). By harnessing in-depth expert interviews with documentarians of the office’s daily operations—researchers, journalists, and fact-checkers ( N = 10)—this study dra… Show more

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Cited by 11 publications
(2 citation statements)
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“…However, the app became a fundamental source of news, as 41% of Brazilians receive news from WhatsApp (Newman et al, 2022). Research suggests that WhatsApp was an important platform for spreading pro-Bolsonaro propaganda during the 2018 presidential election, and later, the former president kept an official department for propaganda spread during his term in office (Ozawa et al, 2023). Our study focuses on Bolsonaro's propaganda in the period immediately following his government and the beginning of Lula da Silva's new term in office.…”
Section: Discussionmentioning
confidence: 99%
“…However, the app became a fundamental source of news, as 41% of Brazilians receive news from WhatsApp (Newman et al, 2022). Research suggests that WhatsApp was an important platform for spreading pro-Bolsonaro propaganda during the 2018 presidential election, and later, the former president kept an official department for propaganda spread during his term in office (Ozawa et al, 2023). Our study focuses on Bolsonaro's propaganda in the period immediately following his government and the beginning of Lula da Silva's new term in office.…”
Section: Discussionmentioning
confidence: 99%
“…For instance, during the 2020 presidential election, political misinformation was spread at high rates on WhatsApp among Latinx communities (Mazzei & Medina, 2020). Several studies demonstrated the role EMAs play in spreading misinformation in countries where EMAs are the most used social media applications, such as India and Brazil (Garimella & Eckles, 2020;Newman et al, 2020;Ozawa et al, 2023).…”
Section: Discussionmentioning
confidence: 99%