A pandemia da desinformação: Covid-19 e as mídias sociais - do fascínio tecnológico à (auto)regulação

Abstract

The article analyzes the use of the new sources of communication and information brought by the Digital Revolution in the scenario of the health crisis of Covid-19, and the self-regulation practices recently adopted by the intermediary internet platforms, with regard to exclusion, through their own judgment, of content considered non-informative. Bibliographic and documentary research and the hermeneutic approach were used to establish an adequate understanding in relation to the question posed. The research problem is to assess the extent to which digital social media served as a medium for the debate around the pandemic and how they have been used to spread disinformation, as well as for the appearance of an anti-modern discourse in terms of rationality, science and politics. As main results, it points to a possible return to the tradition of social law, perhaps distorted, without any public regulation and accountability mechanisms.