The election to power of the Far-Right 63-year-old former army officer has shocked those who thought that Brazil had buried the bad old days of military dictatorship.
Observers say that a tsunami of memes, hashtags and fake news stories flooded social media (over 50 per cent of Brazilians use WhatsApp) preceding the poll. The two most notorious examples circulating widely among Bolsonaro supporters were the false claim that the opposition Workers’ Party (PST) were distributing ‘gay kits’ in schools and that the election machines were rigged during the first round of voting. In the end Bolsonaro’s margin of victory narrowed to 10 per cent over the PST candidate Fernando Haddad – a clear victory but not the predicted landslide.
