Good morning! Today, a survey suggests Brazilians are unprotected against misinformation. A new raise to Brazil’s interest rates. The government tries to censor a comedy movie. And new electoral polls.
Hubris fuels misinformation
The new edition of the Oliver Wyman Forum Global Consumer Sentiment Survey polled news readers in ten countries on how they perceive and deal with online misinformation. The data shows that Brazilians do perceive the spread of falsehoods as a problem — but tend to belittle how much they are themselves at risk of falling for them.
Why it matters. “Those with the highest confidence in their powers of discernment (believing, for example, that they already know which sources are ‘fake news’ or that misinformation techniques don’t work on them) were actually at the highest risk,” writes the report.
Narratives. Tied with the U.S., Brazil is the place where most people believe that Covid is a hoax “pushed by the government” (23 percent). The country also ranks high among those who believe Covid vaccines can alter one’s DNA (22 percent), and who say big pharma is making the pandemic last longer in order to profit (32 percent).
Trust and misinformation. Brazilians trust their government the least among all...