Contention Over (Dis)information in the 2022 Elections: An Analysis of Right-Wing WhatsApp Groups

This chapter discusses instances of disinformation, defined as a phenomenon associated with the contention over information—a debate that acquires certain specificities in face of the current crisis of capitalism and the emergence of digital platforms. The latter have become central agents in the new structure of social mediation and have been used by certain groups of people, especially politically right-wing leaning ones, as a way of overcoming the forms of mediation traditionally associated with liberal democracies, such as official media outlets. The article analyzes the dynamics of far-right groups that gathered and maintained contact via WhatsApp during the 2022 Brazilian presidential elections to characterize the political behavior of the supporters of candidate Jair Bolsonaro and, in particular, instances of disinformation creation and diffusion. To this end, it starts by looking at the data retrieved by monitoring 266 public WhatsApp groups that were covertly accompanied by the authors. To compare the actions of said groups on the eves of the first and second rounds of voting, the following criteria were considered for each batch of messages: (1) their predominant content; (2) origin and authorship; and (3) circulation patterns.