Desinformação no Processo Eleitoral: uma análise do segundo turno das eleições de 2018

Abstract

This article aims to examine advances in the academic literature on disinformation, drawing on the experience of political communication during the second round of the 2018 Brazilian presidential elections, a context marked by the strong influence of social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and WhatsApp. The study also investigates initiatives designed to combat disinformation, with particular emphasis on fact‑checking as a form of autonomous action undertaken by institutional agencies or associations linked to traditional media outlets, whose outputs have come to be recognized as mechanisms for information verification. The analysis is grounded in the premise that fact‑checking has played a relevant role in confronting false information and, consequently, in safeguarding the public sphere and democratic processes. To this end, the research draws on interviews with the scholar Ana Regina Rêgo and with Cristina Tardaguila, founder of Brazil’s first fact‑checking agency. These interviews, published on YouTube, provide empirical support for the analytical framework developed in the article.