{"id":48419,"date":"2018-11-01T09:23:12","date_gmt":"2018-11-01T12:23:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.rioonwatch.org\/?p=48419"},"modified":"2019-01-11T14:45:07","modified_gmt":"2019-01-11T17:45:07","slug":"how-whatsapp-turned-brazils-2018-elections-upside-down-an-autopsy-report","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/?p=48419","title":{"rendered":"How WhatsApp Turned Brazil’s 2018 Elections Upside-Down: An Autopsy Report"},"content":{"rendered":"

Clique aqui para Portugu\u00eas<\/em><\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

WhatsApp, the Facebook-owned messaging application, was once seen as a simple means of communicating and sharing information with friends and family. Brazil’s elections, however, showed precisely how as disinformation runs rampant and even family group chats become political minefields<\/a>, a much more sinister narrative of what the platform ‘offers’ is taking form.<\/p>\n

In a result seen by many as impossible without the rise of social media and WhatsApp as a political news source, Brazilians decisively elected<\/a> far-right nationalist Jair Bolsonaro<\/a> (Social Liberal Party<\/a>\u2013PSL)\u2014previously a little-known congressman from Rio de Janeiro with almost zero official public advertising time\u2014over Workers’ Party<\/a> (PT) candidate Fernando Haddad<\/a> on Sunday, October 28. A significant chunk of this is due to the rise of WhatsApp<\/a> as a theoretically democratic (albeit unregulated) space to share information, posing a direct challenge to the heavily controlled primacy of television, radio, and print\u2014a trend that seems unlikely to be reversed. Bad actors\u2014with the help of unsuspecting users\u2014subverted democracy through the mass, coordinated spread of lies via the unsuspecting platform.<\/p>\n

What makes WhatsApp such a vector for disinformation?<\/h3>\n

Used by nearly seven out of ten Brazilians<\/a>\u00a0and 95% of all smartphone owners in the country<\/a>, WhatsApp is ubiquitous. On top of everyday conversation, users share stories and memes with friends, family, and others in private or group conversations. Information received from such intimate sources can feel deceptively trustworthy, but the true source of information received via WhatsApp is extremely difficult to trace.<\/p>\n

Beyond its tremendous popularity as a relatively no-frills messaging platform, WhatsApp sells its users on secure encryption and privacy. Unlike a public forum like Facebook, which can monitor public information (and sometimes, private information<\/a>), WhatsApp has limited latitude to regulate usage without infringing on user privacy.<\/p>\n

The burden of fact-checking rests on the shoulders of users\u2014a heavy lift in a country where over\u00a0half of the voting population has not completed high school<\/a>\u00a0and many are very new to social media<\/a>. However, the issue is not only digital illiteracy but also a lack of access to legitimate methods of verifying information. Critically, through a partnership with Facebook, many cell phone plans in Brazil (particularly on cheap pre-paid phones) do not include data but grant users exclusive access to WhatsApp and Facebook<\/a>\u00a0as the sole entry points to the Internet. This reinforces the primacy of the two platforms as sources of information and obstructs users from consulting other sources in real time to check facts.<\/p>\n

Key functionalities of the application itself, such as its group creation and forwarding functions, also make it possible to reach hundreds or even thousands of people with just a few taps. Groups in particular\u2014both political and otherwise<\/a>\u2014are often echo chambers that reinforce existing views, stamp out dissenting thought<\/a>, and actively work to delegitimize mainstream journalism<\/a>.<\/p>\n

What were some of the false stories being spread on WhatsApp?<\/h3>\n

Fake stories and conspiracy theories targeted both candidates. Most of the stories targeting Haddad involved communist fear-mongering (emphasizing or falsifying ties to Cuba and Venezuela) and claims that the Workers’ Party wanted to sexualize children, in an attempt to rally\u00a0Brazil’s increasingly powerful evangelical lobby<\/a>. False stories targeting Bolsonaro tended to be conspiracy theories about his health.\u00a0However, only Haddad was the target of an orchestrated mass disinformation campaign.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Some of the most widely-disseminated false or misleading stories include:<\/p>\n