Studying the promotion of health misinformation by the Bolsonaro government
This story was originally written in Portuguese, and published to the website of Revista Questão de Ciência. It appears here with permission.
Disinformation is, in the strictest sense of the word, the composition and dissemination of information that is knowingly false or misleading with the aim of influencing individuals, groups or public opinion in favour of strategic, political, ideological, economic or even personal interests. It is not new for people, companies, institutions and governments to deliberately lie, whether to protect themselves, attack, discredit or hinder opponents and enemies, promote their agendas or obtain some kind of gain or profit.
There is no shortage of historical examples. From the Allied operations that helped convince the Nazi leadership that the invasion of Europe would take place through the Calais region in World War II, to the oil industry’s struggle to first deny the harmful effects on public health of adding lead to fuels, and then global warming and climate change, to the tobacco industry and the link between smoking and cancer.
Until recently, disinformation initiatives were laborious and slow. But today, with the internet and social media, lies travel at the speed of light, reaching well-defined target audiences with surgical precision, or as weapons of mass destruction of truth, credibility or public trust in people, policies or institutions. It is no coincidence that in recent years we have seen the rise of several anti-science movements, from the seemingly harmless flat-earthers to the clearly dangerous anti-vaccine movement, as well as the advance of radical ideologies, notably the far right, and religious fundamentalism.
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