Narratives about the (Supreme Federal Court) and conspiracy theories about fraud in electronic voting machines are the misinformation that most circulates in public groups in Brazil. This is what a report released this Monday (3) by the Lupa checking agency shows.
The study analyzed a year of conversations in 100,000 public groups on the app, between July 2024 and July 2025. The objective was to identify the most recurring themes among false messages that gain reach and those that arouse doubt among users.
The researchers gathered 10,351 pieces of content. There were 9,163 verification requests received by Lupa, 468 verifications published by fact-checking agencies and 720 messages sent frequently in public groups monitored by the data analysis company.
These 720 messages correspond to a random sample among 244 thousand pieces of content marked as “frequently forwarded” on the application. The selection disregarded the approximately 80% of viral messages of a sensitive nature, with nudity, pornography or explicit violence.
Among the misinformation messages analyzed, the STF was the main theme identified. Content that spreads theories about electoral fraud, attempts to minimize the attacks of January 8, 2023 and publications that accuse the court of acting for political motivations are common. The 2024 election campaign period saw the peak circulation of these messages.
Of the 468 proven false content circulating on WhatsApp, 133 (57%) were related to national politics. Of the news that wasn’t about Brazil, most of it was about Venezuela and the United States.
The publications that most motivated requests for checking were those related to public policies and social benefits. The peak occurred during the so-called “Pix crisis”, when the Lula government was forced to revoke a Federal Revenue regulation on monitoring financial transactions.
The measure, which aimed to combat tax evasion, was distorted on social media and transformed into an alleged threat to tax the payment system. One of the main contents in this context was a video published by federal deputy Nikolas Ferreira (PL-MG).
“What goes viral the most is the STF, but what generates the most doubt is what impacts the person’s pocket,” said Beatriz Farrugia, an analyst at Lupa, during the study’s launch event at Faap, in São Paulo.
Video is the predominant format among viral content, followed by audio and texts.
According to Luis Fakhouri, founder of Palver and columnist for Sheetthe 80% of viral content detected as sensitive appeared even though the company proactively left groups dedicated to this type of material.
“Which means that this content circulates in non-pornography groups, such as politics or delivery people. It’s very shocking,” he said.
The report also points out that the use of is still limited in creating misinformation that circulates on the application: only 7% of the false content analyzed used AI, mainly in scams and digital fraud.
