Bolsonaro’s 2018 campaign bombarded millions with fake news via WhatsApp groups

Evidence

News reports have suggested that Brazil’s right-wing populist leader, Jair Bolsonaro, illegally hired organizations during his presidential campaign in 2018 to bombard heaps of WhatsApp users with fake news about his political opponents. Brazil is WhatsApp’s second largest market. By using overseas phone numbers, they were able to circumvent WhatsApp’s rules and reach millions of people with their propaganda. David Nemer, a media studies professor, decided to go undercover and joined several of Bolsonaro’s WhatsApp groups. He reported receiving over a thousand WhatsApp messages per day. Half the Brazilian population is active on WhatsApp. — Sander van der Linden, Foolproof, 336

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: WhatsApp misinformation was getting people killed in India — Sander van der Linden, Foolproof: Why Misinformation Infects…, 318; The group traced Bolsonaro’s rise to big data social media manipulation of attention; Social media microtargeting drove Brazil’s 2018 far-right electoral outcome — James D. Kirylo (ed.), Reinventing Pedagogy of the Oppressed:…, 1336 (+2 more)

Broader Connections

• Social media microtargeting drove Brazil’s 2018 far-right electoral outcome #corroborates (0.90) — James D. Kirylo (ed.), Reinventing Pedagogy of the Oppressed, 1336
• One WhatsApp user could reach 2.5 million people within seconds via group forwarding. #expands (0.85) — Sander van der Linden, Foolproof, 334
• Fake news transitions from a profit motive to political weaponization #exemplifies (0.80) — Lee McIntyre, Post-Truth, 213
• The group traced Bolsonaro’s rise to big data social media manipulation of attention #corroborates (0.75)