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The facts
Fernando Haddad, the candidate for the Workers Party, accused the supporters of Jair Bolsonaro’s, the far-right candidate, of misusing social media, and in particular WhatsApp, to send a massive amount of messages in order to spread misleading information during the campaign, mainly against the Workers Party. According to this complain, the party payed marketing agencies, such as Raposo Fernandes Associados, to create large WhatsApp groups and send political messages to millions of Brazilian citizens. The impact of those tactics on the elections' results could be major, as WhatsApp is a significant social media in Brazil and is used by more than 120 million Brazilians. According to a poll, 44% of voters use WhatsApp in Brazil in order to read political information.

The reactions
On the 10th October 2018, WhatsApp announced that it would take legal action against those strategies by blocking accounts across this service. Shortly after, 500 accounts were banned as they infringe the social media’s misrepresentation and spam policies. WhatsApp also decided to change the way it operates by increasing fact-checking, developing ads containing tips to help people spot misinformation and reduced the number of people allowed in WhatsApp groups from 256 to 20. At the governmental level, a task force was created by the federal police agency to limit the impact of false news.

Still, it is difficult to control the spread of fake news on WhatsApp as it is an encrypted service. Indeed, outsiders do not have the possibility to see what is written in those messages, including WhatsApp and Facebook.