WhatsApp has 120 million active users in Brazil, according to what the company reported in July this year. This number is equivalent to more than half of the Brazilian population, estimated at 208.5 million people.
On Oct. 7, the Brazilian electorate goes to the polls for general elections marked by the intense dissemination of rumors and fraudulent news on social networks, also fomented by the public’s distrust of the press. In this charged political and media environment, journalists have been consistently targeted for doing their investigative and reporting work.
The year 2018 has posed several challenges for fact-checking initiatives in Brazil. In addition to general elections permeated by intense political polarization and the new weight of social networks in the dissemination of rumors, fact-checking professionals are also faced with the distrust of the public, still in doubt about the role of fact-checking in the Brazilian media environment.
In 2018 several Latin American countries will see presidential elections, and with them, the risk of widespread misinformation caused by fraudulent news. In Brazil, concern about the problem has moved public authorities, and within four months of the election, the Superior Electoral Court has made its first decision regarding the fight against fraudulent news in the electoral context.
Just after the controversial May 20 presidential elections, a regulatory agency for the government of Venezuela is using a controversial new communications law against the website of one of the country’s most widely circulated newspapers.
During the highly criticized Venezuelan presidential elections on May 20, monitors of freedom of expression recorded physical attacks on journalists as well as intimidation. It’s more of the same for a community of journalists that has been threatened physically, in the courts and online while covering growing political and societal unrest in recent years.
As Latin American journalists prepare to cover the political campaigns and elections taking place across the region over the next few months, they are facing candidates and members of the public hostile to the profession, including some who will use verbal attacks to interfere with their work.
Brazilian voters will have a robot helper to fight disinformation in this year's general elections. Her name is Fátima, a conversational bot that is being developed by the team at fact-checking site Aos Fatos in partnership with Facebook. Fátima’s launch is scheduled for June, in time for the October elections.
Several communication professionals in Honduras have denounced the theft of their belongings, as well as persecution and threats by the country’s armed forces, in the days following the controversial presidential elections held in the Central American country, according to the Committee for Free Expression (C-Libre).
Inspired by the power of messaging applications to create personal relationships with news readers, a trio of veteran Chilean journalists set out this year to offer a news bot that would keep voters informed during the country’s upcoming elections.
The fight against fake news will likely be a priority for several Brazilian governmental entities as the country faces national elections in the coming year. The National Congress, the Superior Electoral Court, Army and Federal Police have already stressed the importance of reducing fake news commonly disseminated on social networks in order to prevent negative influence on the contests for the president, governors, congressmen and senators.
Journalists were the targets of anti-press sentiment and actions from officials, security forces and citizens leading up to and during the Oct. 15 regional elections for 23 governorships in Venezuela.