JUSTIÇA ELEITORAL E FAKE NEWS

UMA ANÁLISE EMPÍRICA DAS AÇÕES JUDICIAIS NAS ELEIÇÕES DE 2018

Abstract

The work, predominantly exploratory-descriptive, intends to discuss the issue of fake news in the context of electoral competition. The main objective of the work is to present an overview of the judicialization of electoral competition motivated by fake news in 2018, within the scope of the Electoral Court of Brazil. Furthermore, it seeks to discuss the concept and legal framework of fake news in the electoral sphere. The research works on empirical data in a quantitative approach. The analysis corpus consists of a database compiled by Getúlio Vargas Foundation – FGV. The research is justified not only in view of the scarce empirical work on the subject, but also because of the relevance that the theme of judicialization of electoral competition has taken on in recent years. Results show that the vast majority of lawsuits filed before the Electoral Courts dealing with misinformation during the 2018 electoral cycle had the words fake news or “known to be untrue” in their records.