Whenever a story with a wild headline came her way, Mary Rose Filgueiras Lacerda used to skim it and forward it on without any second thoughts.
But when the eye-popping stories arrived with more frequency on WhatsApp, she got suspicious. “I thought, this is strange. It can’t all be true,” says Ms. Lacerda, a retiree who lives in Divinópolis, in Brazil’s Minas Gerais state.
She decided to take action, enrolling in a digital course teaching Brazilians over the age of 50 how to spot fake news. Over five days, daily messages urged her to read beyond the headlines and to double check her sources. Short YouTube videos taught her how to spot fakes and detailed how videos, images, and memes can be doctored.
Fake news has been a global scourge, but Brazilians’ heavy use of social media makes them particularly susceptible. Now, Brazil is trying its hand at setting an example for beating back misinformation.
“I confess I used to forward lots of fake news, because I thought they were true,” Ms. Lacerda says. “What I learned ... showed me we need to stay alert.”
Ms. Lacerda’s concerns are not misplaced. Fake news and misinformation campaigns have hit Brazil hard over the past five years. And even with Brazil’s presidential elections still months away in October, fake news about the upcoming election is already spreading across platforms like WhatsApp, Facebook, Telegram, and TikTok.
Fake news has been a global scourge in recent years, with online messaging services...
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