{"id":86268,"date":"2025-07-21T08:23:15","date_gmt":"2025-07-21T08:23:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lamarescapela.pt\/disinformation-increased-by-160-during-election-periods\/"},"modified":"2025-07-21T08:34:20","modified_gmt":"2025-07-21T08:34:20","slug":"disinformation-increased-by-160-during-election-periods","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lamarescapela.pt\/en\/disinformation-increased-by-160-during-election-periods\/","title":{"rendered":"Disinformation Increased by 160% During Election Periods"},"content":{"rendered":"

Disinformation in the context of elections saw a concerning 160% increase between the 2024 European elections and the 2025 legislative elections, according to the study\u00a0\u201cDisinformation in the 2025 Legislative Elections: Party Activity on Social Media\u201d<\/em>, conducted by the\u00a0Regulatory Authority for the Media (ERC)<\/strong>\u00a0in partnership with the\u00a0University of Beira Interior (UBI)<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

The report reveals a significant rise in disinformation incidents in Portugal during the electoral period, with\u00a04,514 social media posts<\/strong>\u00a0analyzed between\u00a0April 7 and May 19, 2025<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Lamares, Capela & Associados (LACA)\u2019s Role in Combating Disinformation<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Since its founding,\u00a0LACA<\/strong>\u00a0has embraced its responsibility to inform the public as accurately as possible through its website and social media channels.<\/p>\n

The news shared on our blog<\/a> reflects the latest legal developments, ensuring that the information provided is factually correct.<\/p>\n

As a result of this commitment,\u00a0LACA is regularly consulted by fact-checking platforms<\/strong>, such as\u00a0Pol\u00edgrafo<\/strong><\/a>, to clarify the truthfulness of certain news stories \u2014 as seen here<\/a>, here<\/a>, and here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Political Party Involvement<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Among the posts analyzed in the study,\u00a016 cases of disinformation<\/strong>\u00a0were directly linked to political party pages, leading to\u00a0nine investigations<\/strong>\u00a0launched by the ERC.<\/p>\n

The\u00a0CHEGA party<\/strong>\u00a0stood out as the main disseminator of disinformation, responsible for\u00a081.3%<\/strong>\u00a0of the identified cases.\u00a0PS, PSD, and CDS<\/strong>\u00a0each recorded one occurrence, accounting for the remaining\u00a018.7%<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Main Platforms for Disinformation Dissemination<\/strong><\/h3>\n
    \n
  • Instagram (30.0%)<\/strong>\u00a0and\u00a0Facebook (28.9%)<\/strong>\u00a0hosted the majority of the analyzed content.<\/li>\n
  • Followed by\u00a0X\/Twitter (22.8%)<\/strong>,\u00a0TikTok (9.8%)<\/strong>, and\u00a0YouTube (8.5%)<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

     <\/p>\n

    Formats and Types of Disinformation<\/strong><\/h3>\n
      \n
    • Videos<\/strong>\u00a0were the most used format (56.3%), including edited clips, montages, and manipulated footage.<\/li>\n
    • Static images<\/strong>\u00a0accounted for 43.8%, often used to share altered poll results or surveys.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

       <\/p>\n

      Main types of disinformation detected<\/strong><\/h3>\n
        \n
      1. Fake polls or those published by unregistered entities<\/strong>\u00a0\u2013 31.1%<\/li>\n
      2. Texts from alleged media outlets not registered with the ERC<\/strong>\u00a0\u2013 25.0%<\/li>\n
      3. Manipulated videos and posts attacking or discrediting the media<\/strong>\u00a0\u2013 18.8% each<\/li>\n
      4. Altered news stories to create misleading perceptions<\/strong>\u00a0\u2013 6.3%<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

         <\/p>\n

        Severity of Disinformation Content<\/strong><\/h3>\n
          \n
        • 43.8%<\/strong>\u00a0had\u00a0low disinformation potential<\/strong>, being amateur content easily verifiable online.<\/li>\n
        • 37.5%<\/strong>\u00a0had\u00a0medium potential<\/strong>, involving fact distortion or data manipulation.<\/li>\n
        • 18.8%<\/strong>\u00a0were classified as\u00a0high disinformation potential<\/strong>, containing entirely false elements, many generated by\u00a0Artificial Intelligence (AI)<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

           <\/p>\n

          Reach and Impact<\/strong><\/h3>\n

          The 16 identified posts generated:<\/p>\n

            \n
          • 197,471 interactions<\/strong><\/li>\n
          • 20,633 comments<\/strong><\/li>\n
          • 12,368 shares<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

            Additionally,\u00a0nine videos surpassed 3.5 million views<\/strong>, mainly on Instagram and TikTok. The study estimates that\u00a0over six million users<\/strong>\u00a0were exposed to disinformation content.<\/p>\n

             <\/p>\n

            This study, conducted under a protocol between\u00a0ERC<\/strong>\u00a0and\u00a0LabCom \u2013 UBI\u2019s Communication Sciences Research Unit<\/strong>, highlights the growing impact of disinformation in electoral contexts and the amplifying role of social media.<\/p>\n

            The scale of the audience reached and the involvement of political parties in spreading manipulative content underscore the urgent need for effective measures to promote\u00a0media literacy<\/strong>, strengthen\u00a0digital regulation<\/strong>, and safeguard the\u00a0integrity of democratic debate in Portugal<\/strong>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

            Disinformation in the context of elections saw a concerning 160% increase between the 2024 European elections and the 2025 legislative elections, according to the study\u00a0\u201cDisinformation in the 2025 Legislative Elections: Party Activity on Social Media\u201d, conducted by the\u00a0Regulatory Authority for the Media (ERC)\u00a0in partnership with the\u00a0University of Beira Interior (UBI). The report reveals a significant […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":86263,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2073],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-86268","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general-topics"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lamarescapela.pt\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86268","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lamarescapela.pt\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lamarescapela.pt\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lamarescapela.pt\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lamarescapela.pt\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=86268"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lamarescapela.pt\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86268\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lamarescapela.pt\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/86263"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lamarescapela.pt\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=86268"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lamarescapela.pt\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=86268"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lamarescapela.pt\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=86268"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}