News Americas, RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil, Fri. Oct. 19, 2018: Fakes news about candidates is poisoning the Brazilian presidential elections, with the final round of election scheduled for next Sunday.
The fake news, mostly including insulting and defamatory information against competitors, is often published and spread by supporters of different candidates and their parties. The fake news reports are in different forms like video, recordings, photos and so on.
“Fake news spreads far and wide at a rapid speed. Some groups with political motives are taking advantage of these features of fake news to make up news related to the candidates in an attempt to influence the elections,” said an editor from a fake news authentication center in Brazil.
The country’s Supreme Electoral Court (TSE), has recently ordered a social media platform to remove the fake news about Workers’ Party candidate Fernando Haddad and vice-presidential candidate Manuela D’Avila. According to statistics, this fake news has been viewed more than five million times online, seriously tarnishing the images of the candidates.
The TSE has asked related social media platforms to submit the information of users who published the fake news. The Brazilian federal police have also started to investigate the case.
The right-wing Jair Bolsonaro and the left-leaning rival Fernando Haddad will face off in the upcoming run-off on October 28th.
