The memetization of disinformation in bolsonarist discourse in times of COVID-19

democracia sanitária à prova da desinformação

Abstract

The article discusses how internet memes act as semiotic operators of Bolsonarist discursive in the service of disinformation about combat measures for the COVID-19 pandemic in Brazil. We employ some postulates from Discourse Analysis in the inspection of memes published on social media platforms by Brazilian internet users and parliamentarians aligned with the position of the former president of Brazil, Jair Messias Bolsonaro, about the pandemic reality in the country. The humorous criticism of the World Health Organization(WHO) guidelines is conveyed in jocular semiotic units (memes) in three main registers: prevention, treatment, and immunization against the disease. We infer how the memefication of fake news about the virus and its lethality corroborated in the denial of the severity of a global health problem on digital social media. The Bolsonarist discourse parallel to the global scientific consensus on measures to combat the disease has become an exemplary case of the ideologization of public health in Brazil with negative repercussions for health democracy in the country.