Research note: Bolsonaro’s firehose: How Covid-19 disinformation on WhatsApp was used to fight a government political crisis in Brazil
Título
Research note: Bolsonaro’s firehose: How Covid-19 disinformation on WhatsApp was used to fight a government political crisis in Brazil
Autor
Felipe Bonow Soares, Raquel Recuero, Taiane Volcan, Giane Fagundes, Giéle Sodré
Descripción
Brazil has one of the highest rates of cases and deaths attributed to Covid-19 in the world. Two factors contributed to the high rates: the Brazilian government underestimated the pandemic and a large amount of disinformation was spread through social media. We found that disinformation about Covid-19 on WhatsApp was associated with political disinformation, mostly composed to support president Bolsonaro during the crisis he faced at the beginning of the pandemic. Our main finding implicates that disinformation on WhatsApp was connected to the far-right political discourse and framed Covid-19 as a political issue rather than a public health issue.
Fecha
2021
Materia
covid-19, Conspiracy theories, disinformation, whatsApp
Identificador
10.37016/mr-2020-54
Fuente
Epidemiology and Health
Editor
Korean Society of Epidemiology
Cobertura
Communication. Mass media, Information technology
Archivos
Colección
Citación
Felipe Bonow Soares, Raquel Recuero, Taiane Volcan, Giane Fagundes, Giéle Sodré, “Research note: Bolsonaro’s firehose: How Covid-19 disinformation on WhatsApp was used to fight a government political crisis in Brazil,” SOCICT Open, consulta 11 de junio de 2026, https://www.socictopen.socict.org/items/show/6379.
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