"In a context in which political coverage has become central to public debate and mobilized different groups on social media, hostility toward the press has also gained ground.
This is according to monitoring conducted by the Coalition in Defense of Journalism (CDJor) in partnership with the Laboratory of Internet and Data Science (Labic) at the Federal University of Espírito Santo at the start of the election campaign. Between Aug. 16 and 29, 2,630 attacks were recorded in posts targeting 91 news outlets and 46 journalists, as well as the press in general, on X and Instagram.
Of the total attacks identified, 1,548 occurred on Instagram and 1,082 on X, the two social networks analyzed by the monitoring project. They came from across the political spectrum, from supporters and candidates on the left to the far right.
Although Instagram accounted for the largest number of stigmatizing posts, attacks were proportionally more frequent on X.
In total, 61,989 posts, reposts and comments on X and 457,235 posts and comments on Instagram — the platform most widely used by candidates — were analyzed."
Read the full story (in Portuguese)
This story was translated with the assistance of AI and reviewed by Alejandro Martínez-Cabrera
