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The electoral campaign on social media took a turn in the second round and has been marked, in the early days, by an escalation of content that explores fear and rejection of a possible victory of former President Lula or President Jair Bolsonaro.
The Main Tactic
The tactic involves the association of candidates with topics ranging from abortion and drugs to cannibalism, satanism, and churches closure. It has used sensationalist formats and texts to capture the attention of users of digital platforms.
Superior Electoral Court (TSE)
On Thursday (13/10), Superior Electoral Court (TSE) President Alexandre de Moraes said that the beginning of the electoral campaign of the second round is being marked by “two new types of disinformation”, “disinformation in its second generation”, pointing out that the Electoral Justice must act to curb abuses that harm voters.
According to Moraes, the first type of disinformation is through the manipulation of some true premises, which joins together several true information that happened arriving at a false conclusion. The second is the use of traditional media to plant fake news and, from there, campaigns replicate these fake news, saying that “this is news”.
Violence on the Streets
Apart from the internet, the political dispute has also become more violent on the streets. The number of episodes of political violence in Brazil has increased by 400% in the last four years and reached an average of one case every 26 hours in 2022. The data are from a new survey, carried out by the non-governmental human rights organizations Justiça Global and Terra de rights.
From 1 August to the 2 October, 121 politically motivated attacks were identified, which increased to an average of two cases a day in the final stretch of the first round. In this interval, the number of episodes of political violence was higher than the total of the first seven months of the year in the country.
In addition, according to the study, a murder or attempt on life by political violence happens every five days. The average is inffluenced, above all, by the states of São Paulo (24 cases), Rio de Janeiro (22) and Bahia (20), followed by Pará (14), Pernambuco (08) and Paraíba (07).
