As every year, the editorial staff of
20 Minutes
accompanies you during the December holidays.
And like every one at this time, we look back on the past year and we plan for the one to come.
Until December 31, find all the big events of 2022, from the most catastrophic to the coolest.
In this eighth episode, we look back to the year when, from the United States to Brazil and Israel, voters around the world were inundated with misinformation.
Many U.S. candidates have borrowed Donald Trump's anti-democratic tactics, such as unproven claims of voter fraud.
From fake photos intended to manipulate voters to so-called “deepfake” or “hyperfaking” videos (an artificial intelligence technology that replaces one face with another), a tsunami of untruths has swept the world in 2022. From the United States to Brazil to Israel, voters around the world have been inundated with misinformation.
Many U.S. candidates have indeed borrowed Donald Trump's anti-democratic tactics, such as unproven claims of voter fraud, but contrary to forecasts by Republicans, who expected a "red wave" in the midterm elections, the most of the candidates dubbed by the former president suffered bitter defeats.
“Trying to wean their sympathizers from conspiracy theories”
Republican party leaders "seem to come to terms with the idea that embracing conspiracy theory has led to poor candidate choices, reduced voter turnout, sow distrust among voters, and many other ills," says Mike Caulfield, a researcher at the Center for an Informed Public at the University of Washington.
“Many will now try to wean their supporters off conspiracy theories about voter fraud,” he adds.
Proof of this is in Brazil, where a second round pitted outgoing President Jair Bolsonaro against left-wing candidate Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva at the end of October.
The election campaign was also marked by disinformation, the outgoing far-right president shouting like Donald Trump at electoral fraud, without proof.
It was ultimately Lula who won, with polls showing that the majority of Brazilian voters still trust electronic voting.
But analysts have warned that the fight against disinformation is far from over in Brazil.
The shadow of Donald Trump
In Israel, too, Benjamin Netanyahu's Likud began a “Stop the Fraud” campaign as soon as the election was announced.
The accusations were relayed by the party and its supporters in order, according to analysts, to improve the chances of electoral victory.
“The Likud was peddling allegations that the ballot was rigged, that Israel's election commission was controlled by the 'deep state',” the idea that senior officials secretly control the machinery of government, says Achiya Schatz , from the anti-disinformation group FakeReporter.
Likud and its right-wing allies won the majority of seats in parliament, paving the way for the return to power of Netanyahu, who did not contest the verdict at the polls.
Donald Trump's shadow also hangs over Hungarian politics, where the former US president personally dubbed far-right Prime Minister Viktor Orban ahead of the misinformation-ridden April election.
Orban's Fidesz party has "made the most of its control over the media to spread factually incorrect or misleading allegations and accusations against its opponents, almost without external scrutiny", according to a study by the Hungarian research center Political Capital.
Just before the vote, Viktor Orban, who is a close ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin, claimed without proof that his rivals had 'made a pact with the Ukrainians' to offer them weapons and aid if they were elected .
The Fidesz party won a landslide victory.
Fact-checking surveys "have had very little impact"
Around the world, misinformation tends to escalate around elections, which erodes public trust in democratic institutions and can lead to chaos, with some trying to manipulate the results.
In the Philippines, misinformation on social media reached "unprecedented" heights during the presidential election in May, notes Rachel Khan of the fact-checking network Tsek.ph.
The fact-checking surveys “had very little impact”, regretted Rachel Khan, for whom “there is a problem of competence in the media.
Even those who say they know how to recognize disinformation, in fact do not know it”.
In Kenya, presidential favorites William Ruto and Raila Odinga are accused of recruiting digital “fighters”.
Election untruths began to spread nearly a year before last August's election, including "deepfake" videos.
Kenya's Supreme Court has upheld William Ruto's election, but many Raila Odinga supporters still believe the ballot was rigged.
Our “fake off” section
Elections are due next year in Nigeria and similar tactics are beginning to appear online.
And in the United States, analysts warn that campaigns casting doubt on the integrity of the electoral process could start again with renewed vigor in the run-up to the 2024 election, especially after Donald Trump announced his candidacy.
For Pamela Smith, of the independent group Verified Voting, "disinformation remains an effective tool and those who only recognize the elections they win will continue to use it".
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