“The truth will set you free”: disinformation and post-truth in the Bolsonaro Administration in the fight against Covid-19

Abstract

Biblical verses are widely used by government officers in Jair Messias Bolsonaro Administration, president of Brazil since 2019. However, the practice has not been the same as the theory, since, in their official and unofficial speeches, fake news that promote misinformation. This paper aims to present evidence that the Government contributed to disinformation in the fight against Covid-19 in Brazil. The qualitative-quantitative, exploratory and descriptive research was developed by collecting the publications of the President of the Republic of Brazil on Twitter. It was counted the times that he mentioned, in the posts on his Twitter account, the use of medicines and substances with no proven effectiveness in combating the pandemic of the new coronavirus. His speech was analyzed from the notions of "information" of fundamental authors of Information Science and of truth and "post-truth", with the purpose of explaining the reasons why disinformation finds echoes in the followers of that president, leading to the context of their speeches and behaviors in other communication vehicles is taken into account. The results demonstrate how disinformation, even in a private account disguised as public/official, on social media, has major repercussions in the lack of adequate measures and treatment and, consequently, in the deaths caused by Covid-19 in the country. It is concluded that some of their posts and attitudes culminated in hate speeches and attacks by their followers on opponents of the Government, putting society in a limbo of misinformation, lost as to which health recommendation to follow and who to believe. After all, the word of the authority that should release (from the pandemic) did not align with scientific research and the recommendations of the World Health Organization, echoing contradictions, untruths and misinformation.