THE DISINFORMATION INDUSTRY OBSERVATORY AND ITS IMPACT
IN CONSUMER RELATIONS IN BRAZIL
In December 2023, NetLab UFRJ signed an agreement with the Ministry of Justice with the aim of providing inputs that can support public policies for consumer protection. The project The Disinformation Industry Observatory and its Impact on Consumer Relations in Brazil aims to analyze the notoriously obscure disinformation industry that has been developing on the Internet, by identifying its infrastructure, political economy, disinformation strategies and unethical conduct on digital platforms, in addition to its role in manipulating consumer relations.
Project start: December 1, 2023
End of project: March 28, 2025
Support:
Objectives
To create transparency and quality indicators relating to the access to data offered by online platforms, relating to user-generated data and data relating to digital advertising. To this end, we propose analyzing seven digital platforms and six ad platforms.
Develop research into fake ads and the disinformation ecosystem that culminates in financial operations, based on evidence and scientific methods.
Create a database of fake or fraudulent accounts and pages where advertisers mislead consumers, steal data, cause financial losses, scams or any other type of material or moral loss or damage.
Promote seminars to disseminate and discuss the results of the two studies proposed in the project with teams from the Ministry of Justice and invited guests.
Create a protocol of complaints for the Ministry of Justice to implement on its virtual channels. These complaints, in turn, could serve as input for the research.
Results
Study #1: False advertisements, their mechanisms and potential harm to Brazilian consumers
Study #2: Disinformation ecosystem that culminates in financial operations
Submission of the protocol for reporting scams suffered by consumers through advertisements displayed on digital platforms
Submission of the information request protocol regarding scams suffered by consumers through advertisements displayed on digital platforms