Abstract
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 dis-course and framed Covid-19 as a political issue rather than a public health issue.
Highlights
What are the topics of messages containing disinformation about Covid-19 on WhatsApp public groups in Brazil?
Our findings suggest that disinformation about Covid-19 followed a pattern of connection with political themes that were in the public debate in the country
For example, Brazil’s far-right president Jair Bolsonaro minimized Covid-19. He publicly called it a “little flu,” advocated for the end of measures such as social distancing and quarantine, and constantly appeared in public hugging his supporters without wearing a mask
Summary
What are the topics of messages containing disinformation about Covid-19 on WhatsApp public groups in Brazil?. For example, Brazil’s far-right president Jair Bolsonaro minimized Covid-19 He publicly called it a “little flu,” advocated for the end of measures such as social distancing and quarantine (which were put in place by state governors and mayors), and constantly appeared in public hugging his supporters without wearing a mask. Two opposing discourses emerged: one reinforcing WHO recommendations about the seriousness of the situation and following scientific evidence, and another minimizing the pandemic (Sandy & Milhorance, 2020) Amidst this dispute, many people refused to wear masks, and multiple protests against the Covid-19 containment measures and social distancing protocols erupted, which were lead predominantly by Bolsonaro’s supporters. By the end of 2020, Brazil had one of the highest numbers of cases (over 7.5 million) and deaths (almost 200,000) in the world.
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