The beginning of November was filled with anxiety about the US elections, with the slow and disputed count. And Americans weren't the only ones anxious. Knowing who the new president of the only power will be is an indication of how foreign policy around the world will be affected, including ours. As happened in 2016, Trump supporters used “special resources” to give their (conspiratorial) ideas a little push. And this little push was helped by Brazilian bots on Twitter.
Without any basis in fact, trumpists They claim that there was fraud in the elections and that the real winner is the current president. And, in this regard, around 1500 to 2000 Brazilian bots also claim this, in an attempt to help Donald Trump on Twitter.
Bots interfering in electoral processes is not exactly new, even from other countries. But what sets Brazilian bots apart from those of other nationalities, such as the famous Ukrainian bots, is the method. Instead of pretending to be American citizens and using hashtags like #BidenWasNotElected, these fake accounts tweet in Portuguese, like Brazilian profiles.
https://twitter.com/AraciPatriota/status/1329210361325744139
The BotSentinel group, which created an artificial intelligence that detects bot activity, made the discovery. These Brazilian bots often tag real Twitter accounts. Their goal is to influence public opinion on the subject through misinformation.
It is worth mentioning that real users are also the ones who create the hashtags used by Brazilian bots, whose job is simply to spread the message. Some of these fake accounts even mention President Jair Bolsonaro. So far, the Brazilian president has not recognized Joe Biden's victory. This action is not surprising, since President Jair Bolsonaro has always declared himself a great ally of Donald Trump. On the other hand, there is no concrete information that these Brazilian bots on Twitter are coordinated by the “hate cabinet” to help Trump.
The post-defeat turmoil is part of a very peculiar campaign in the US. Voting and counting have now ended, giving a victory of candidate Joe Biden about Donald Trump. But there is hope for Trump: according to the inscrutable American system, the winner will only be announced on December 14th. That is when electoral delegates confirm the votes in each state. And, in theory, they can vote differently than what the polls indicate.
Through which channels you reach those people, classic and out of the box. ozy
Image: Ann H/Pexels/CC