The stabbing, which forced the far-right leader to spend most of the remaining weeks of the campaign in hospital, was a turning point in the election.

Up to 48% of the rightwing items containing externally verified falsehoods mentioned a fictional plot to fraudulently manipulate the electronic ballot system, echoing conspiracy theories promoted by Bolsonaro’s team and casting suspicion on the democratic process.Īnother 19% of the messages promoted misleading information about a stabbing attack against Bolsonaro in early September 2018. Almost all the major rightwing fake news stories fell into four categories, the analysis reveals: Much of the fake news shared on WhatsApp reflected the far-right values promoted by Bolsonaro’s team during the two-month campaign. The instant messaging app is very popular in Brazil, with more than 120 million users in a population of about 210 million people. The figures suggest the spread of fake news was highly asymmetrical, accounting for much of the content being spread by and to Bolsonaro supporters on WhatsApp. Less than 3% of the leftwing messages analysed in the study contained externally verified falsehoods. In a sample of 11,957 viral messages shared across 296 group chats on the instant-messaging platform in the campaign period, approximately 42% of rightwing items contained information found to be false by factcheckers.

Whatsapp news 2019