🇧🇷🗳️ Our colleagues at AfpChecamos identified the top disinformation techniques used in the online proxy wars between backers of far-right incumbent Jair Bolsonaro and leftist rival Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva ahead of Brazil's presidential runoff
In an increasingly familiar script, Brazil's presidential election campaign is awash in conspiracy theories, social media attacks and other disinformation / © AFP
For example, a video was widely shared Wednesday by Bolsonaro backers, including influential Evangelical pastor Silas Malafaia, in which Lula says:"I have to lie. Politicians have to lie." "Bozo is a compulsive liar," Lula, 76, said in a podcast interview."He literally says, 'I have to lie.'"In one clip, he appears to say he will name scandal-plagued ex-president Fernando Collor to his cabinet to"confiscate retirees' pensions."Bolsonaro warns ex-president Lula wants to"impose communism" in Brazil, and often points to crises in other Latin American countries as examples of the dangers of left-wing rule.
"Starving locals attack poultry and pig farmers in Argentina," warns another apocalyptic message, accompanying a video of pillaging that allegedly occurred under leftist President Alberto Fernandez. Sometimes the supposed polls are completely fabricated. Other posts use editing software to change the figures in TV news reports.Multiple claims of fraud went viral after the first-round election on October 2, in which Lula took 48 percent of the vote to 43 percent for Bolsonaro.