In a scenario of growing importance of the internet for the political debate and the promotion of political campaigns, especially on the social networks, the potential for using the digital publicity tools made available by internet platforms use for electoral purposes draws our attention. Beyond the concerns involving the microdirecting of political advertising, there are also concerns regarding the use of technology to articulate disinformation and manipulation operations within the public debate, through the sharing of fake news and the use of bots.

See the commentaries [in Portuguese] of Francisco Brito Cruz, InternetLab’s director and co-author of the book “Electoral Rights in the Digital Era”:

These and other discussions involving disinformation processes and the use of robots in political-electoral debates are systematized and discussed in-depth in the work “Electoral Rights in the Digital Era”, a result of the meetings of a workgroup involving InternetLab researchers, an independent research center on Law and technology, and Brazilian electoral lawyers. The book will be released soon, but it is already available for pre-order here [in Portuguese].

Team responsible for the content: Heloisa Massaro (heloisa.massaro@internetlab.org.br), Thiago Dias Oliva (thiago.oliva@internetlab.org.br) and Francisco Brito Cruz (francisco@internetlab.org.br).

Translation: Ana Luiza Araujo