Fake news and the rupture of democracy: a world phenomenon?

Four prominent Brazilian personalities, journalists and researchers will meet at King’s College London to discuss the role that media bias and fake news played in the 2016 impeachment of president Dilma Rousseff, the incarceration of president Lula da Silva in 2018 and the election of Jair Bolsonaro in the same year.

The discussion will explore parallels between Fake News in Brazil, the UK, Europe and the rest of the world, and the extent to which they can be used as a political weapon for anti-democratic forces across the globe. The discussion will investigate the mechanisms that reactionary forces utilise in order to create and disseminate false information, and reflect on what we can do done in order to protect the integrity of truth without resorting to censorship.

This debate is part of The Week of Fake News, a cross-sector initiative encompassing cinema, music, fine arts, academia, political debate and more. It will place between 23-29 May 2022. Its objective is to dissect the role of fake news, media manipulation and fascism in the deconstruction of democracy in countries such as Brazil and the UK.

Find out more about the other activities by visiting www.theweekoffakenews.org 

About the speakers

Jean Wyllys: Jean is a scholar in Political Science at the University of Barcelona, where he researches the contagion by fake news and the rise of authoritarian governments. Award-winning journalist, he writes about civil rights and liberties. He served two consecutive terms as federal deputy in Brazil.

Márcia Tiburi: Márcia is a philosopher, plastic artist and writer. She is currently living under exile in Paris, and works as a professor at the University Paris 8. She has written extensively about the rise of fascism and fake news in Brazil. She authored the book The Psycho-Cultural Underpinnings of Everyday Fascism, published in 2021.    

Victor Fraga: Victor is an Anglo-Brazilian journalist and filmmaker. He is the founder and director of the DMovies, the portal for thought-provoking cinema. He directed the documentary The Coup d'Etat Factory, about the role of media bias and fake news in the collapse of Brazilian democracy.

Priscila Currie: Priscila works as a paramedic for the NHS in London. She attends time critical emergencies. She graduated in Paramedic Science from St George's University of London in 2014. She is the founder of the #derrubeasfakenews campaign, a group of doctors, scientists and health experts who fight fake news.