According to Reuters, the Brazilian federal police asked the supreme court to charge President Jair Bolsonaro with incitement for spreading false information, including baseless claims linking AIDS to the COVID-19 vaccines.
Bolsonaro To Be Charged Over Untrue Statements
A senior federal police investigator recently announced that he wrote to the supreme court calling for Bolsonaro to be questioned and charged with the crime of incitement, The Guardian reported. The president was accused of delaying vaccine purchases and promoting quack cures after his anti-scientific response to the disease he called “a bit of cold” was internationally condemned and was subject to a congressional inquiry.
The federal police investigation into alleged Covid crimes was ordered last December after a congressional inquiry into Bolsonaro’s public health emergency handling.
The Guardian reported that Bolsonaro’s alleged crime relates to a “notorious social media broadcast,” in October 2021, when the president falsely claimed that face masks were responsible for many deaths during the 1918 influenza pandemic. He added that governmental studies in the United Kingdom suggested that fully vaccinated people were developing AIDS much faster than expected, but British officials denied the claims. Later, YouTube and Facebook removed the broadcast in question.
“[The president] in a direct, spontaneous, and conscious manner disseminated the disinformation that victims of the Spanish flu had, in fact, died as a result of bacterial pneumonia caused by the use of masks, instilling in viewers’ minds a veritable disincentive to their use in the fight against Covid at a time when the use of masks was compulsory,” The Guardian quoted from the police report.
According to Lorena Lima Nascimento, the federal police investigator, the untrue statements can be considered a misdemeanor and could generate public alarm over a non-existent danger.
The far-right populist’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic became a crucial issue amid the presidential election campaign ahead of the first-round vote formally expected on October 2. The leftist candidate Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva took advantage of the situation to attack his rival and described him as a denialist and “possessed by the devil.”
Misinformation Amid Election Campaigns
Misinformation has regularly appeared in the middle of election campaigns. Although candidates spend large amounts of money on their campaigns, others use misinformation and propaganda to achieve better outcomes.
Candidates may use misleading legitimate-looking statements to attract people’s attention and convince them to vote. Earlier in April, during the French presidential elections, Misbar has worked on a blog highlighting numerous claims, including those made by the candidates to attack their opponents and valorize their strategies and plans.
As social media platforms became vital in political campaigns influencing policy-making, political marketing has also been brought to the field. Misinformation became a crucial tool to influence political discourse and international affairs.
Several candidates used spin doctors and social media strategists to marketize their strategies and promote their plans. Our previous blog confirmed that spin doctors use “fake news” among different tools to guarantee a consensus to the candidate.
According to Yassine Bouchouar, a researcher in political communication, the purpose of spreading false information during election campaigns is to stir public opinion and direct attention towards specific plans counting on some social issues around which the condition of national consensus has not been met. “This can be seen in the electoral discourse of the extreme right, for example,” Mr. Bouchouar told Misbar.
According to the expert, false or misleading information at this electoral stage might reflect political and propaganda biases and affiliations. “What a group of people considers misleading may be considered as truth for another community,” he explained. “Consequently, political affiliation has a role in spreading, accepting, rejecting, and generating false and misleading news during the election period.”
The political communication expert explained that while the period of “electoral promises” is based on political marketing and aims at seducing people using misinformation, the “post-election” period is based on real achievements, official reports, and accurate information records.
He added that adopting false and misleading news on a fundamental basis in the electoral process may not always help achieve better outcomes and positive results since it may harm the candidates themselves and make them fall prey to misinformation.
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