Online disinformation is casting a shadow over Brazil’s presidential election. Jair Bolsonaro, the country’s incumbent right-wing president, and his allies have proven adept at flooding social media and messaging services with lies and conspiracy theories about his challenger, former president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, popularly known as Lula.
Fake news spread by social media likely helped Bolsonaro narrow the race in the first round on 2 October, when he performed much better than pollsters predicted. As both men prepare for the run-off vote on 30 October, the far right’s misinformation machine is expected to shift into overdrive.
Not only does digital misinformation tarnish reputations and intimidate opponents, it mobilises voters. This campaign has already seen influential politicians and pastors spread rumours on Facebook that Lula planned to shut down churches and persecute their followers. False allegations about Lula’s anti-Christian crusade reached 142 million Twitter accounts, reinforcing Bolsonaro's claim that he alone could safeguard the faithful. These tactics seem to be working, just as they did in 2018, with a sizable share of the evangelical vote migrating from Lula to Bolsonaro in recent months.
