The Brazilian Far-right After Bolsonaro: How New Actors Are Using Disinformation Strategies to Mobilize the Audience on Digital Platforms

Although symbolically defeated by the left in the 2022 presidential elections, the Brazilian far-right, institutionally represented by former President Jair Messias Bolsonaro's government (2019-2022), continues to mobilize a significant portion of the electorate, repositioning its agenda within the mainstream of previously centrist and moderate politics. Given the central role of Bolsonarism (an ideological movement centered around Bolsonaro), this study aims to explore how the Brazilian far-right is adapting its narratives and rhetoric to seek greater support among voters. In this sense, we update the new uses of digital platforms and disinformation strategies adopted by the far-right parties and politicians to garner voter sympathy, especially from the center in the political spectrum. Through a Content Analysis, we identify five main manipulation tactics most commonly used on social media (Polarization, False Identity, Emotion, Defamation, and Conspiracy) associated with far-right rhetoric in the Brazilian context. In conclusion, we pointed out a change of this language, by the use of new platforms that now are playing a significant role in the way that Brazilian right and far-right actors communicate with the audience, such as a change of the topics in its traditional moral-emotional agenda, more based now in a transphobic discourse.