4.1 THE DISINFORMATION LANDSCAPE IN THE REGION Disinformation in Latin America and the Caribbean is a long-standing phenomenon, and it has been mainly disseminated by authorities, politicians, and media outlets. However, as already pointed out, the growth of the practice, driven by digital platforms, has led to greater attention being focused on it in the region. Concern regarding this matter has arisen not only among civil society actors, researchers, and governments, but also among the general population. According to a report entitled “Digital 2021: Global Overview Report” (Kemp 2021), four of the main countries in the region had an index of concern about disinformation above the world average (56.4 percent), with Brazil being the country in which this fear was most pronounced (84 percent of citizens interviewed), followed by Chile (64.6 percent), Argentina (60.4 percent) and Mexico (59.9 percent). This concern with disinformation must be viewed in a broader sense since, as has been stated earlier, this phenomenon is not new in Latin America and extends not only to digital platforms, but also to media outlets and authorities. As such, the concern expressed by interviewed individuals pertains to several types of disinformation, originating from different actors and spread through different media outlets and platforms. According to the 2018–2019 “Latin American Communication Monitor” (Moreno et al. 2019), which collected data from communications professionals in nineteen countries, 65.2 percent said they pay attention to the topic, 62.7 percent commented that this practice influences the public sphere in their countries, and 42.3 percent reported that the subject is often discussed in their country. The countries whose professionals pointed more often to disinformation as a subject of discussion are Brazil (67.9 percent), Mexico (61.1 percent), Colombia (48.1 percent), and Costa Rica (43.1 percent). Overall, 83.8 percent said that social media are the main channels for the circulation of such content, while 37.8 percent also noticed this practice in traditional communication vehicles. One of the most often recurring types of disinformation is that promoted in electoral contexts. In recent years, examples have been recorded in several countries in the region. For example, in analyzing the 2018 presidential elections in Brazil, Colombia, and Mexico, a study commissioned by the Atlantic Council pointed out the recurrent dissemination of disinformation by I N FO R M ATI O N D I SO R D ER IN THE GLOBA L SOUTH candidates and supporters as a tactic in political disputes and as an attempt to generate influence over citizens’ voting decisions: A rapidly evolving information environment— wherein innovation often outpaces traditional security measures and governance at the private and public levels—became a catalyst and a vector for the spread of rumors and false information. Disinformation actors, whether through organic disinformation or by employing artificial amplification, provoked fear and anxiety and sought to illicitly influence voters, undermining the electoral process along the way. (Bandeira et al. 2019, 3) In Uruguay, for example, as in other countries, the 2019 elections were marked by the dissemination of fake news. The fact-checking project Verificado published a balance sheet with seventy-six items that were analysed by them. Of these, twelve were from debates and sixty-four were messages disseminated across the web. Of the latter, thirtyeight were classified as false, seven as misleading, seven as inaccurate, and twelve as true.3 This phenomenon has also manifested in other political processes. In the 2019 coup d���état in Bolivia, which ended in the overthrow of the government of Evo Morales, the Special Rapporteur for Freedom of Expression of the Inter-American Comission on Human Rights (IACHR) of the Organization of American States (OAS) registered violations of the right to freedom of expression and deliberate disinformation dissemination campaigns both during the elections and afterwards, including through the use of false accounts (RELE 2020). In Ecuador, also in 2019, In Ecuador, also in 2019, during during the October protests, the October protests, there were there were several cases of several cases of disinformation disinformation being circulatbeing circulated, with the aim of ed, with the aim of inciting the inciting the population against population against the protestthe protesters (RELE 2020). ers (RELE 2020). The Ecuador Chequea agency reported having identified more than sixty fake news stories and having disproved more than 140 pieces of content.4 During the workshops and interviews with actors working to combat disinformation, representatives of organizations also addressed the characteristics of disinformation in the region. One of the characteristics already mentioned is the participation of political figures, including presidents, representatives, and state and local governors. According to Juan Carlos Lara (interview, August 2021) of Derechos Digitales, “First of all, the Latin America and the Caribbean – 83