Disinformation in Brazil: The 2019 Amazon Fires on Social Media

In this paper, Lyndon, Tse, Moore, and May-Hobbs examine the online spread of disinformation about the Amazon fires in Brazil in 2019. They outline the tactics used by supporters of Jair Bolsonaro to spread a disinformation narrative across social media platforms about the causes of the Amazon fires. This is used as a case study into the various tactics that actors use to spread disinformation online and the methodologies researchers can utilise to track the spread of disinformation. The authors discuss the methods used to analyse disinformation techniques, emphasising the importance of qualitative research in addition to the use of digital tools, and set out how the process of identification can be used in future studies into the spread of disinformation online.