Analyzing Misinformation Claims During the 2022 Brazilian General Election on WhatsApp, Twitter, and Kwai

Abstract

Abstract This study analyzes misinformation claims sent to fact-checking organizations on WhatsApp during the 2022 Brazilian general election and compares them with content from Twitter and Kwai (a popular video-sharing application similar to TikTok). Given the democratic importance of accurate information during elections, multiple fact-checking organizations collaborated to collect and respond to misinformation via WhatsApp tiplines and power a fact-checking feature within a chatbot operated by Brazil’s election authority, the Tribunal Superior Eleitoral (TSE). We partnered with TSE and three fact-checking organizations and collected social media data to study how misinformation claims propagate across platforms. We observed little overlap between the users of different fact-checking tiplines and a high correlation between the number of users and the amount of unique content, suggesting that WhatsApp tiplines are far from reaching a saturation point. Similarly, we also found little overlap in content across platforms, indicating the need for further research with cross-platform approaches to identify misinformation dynamics.