Digital Disinformation Trends in Latin America: Organisation, Goals, and Policy Pushback

The topic of digital disinformation in Latin America has gained significant traction in recent decades as polarisation increases in the region, trust in institutions erodes, and the arrival of digital propaganda to countries including Brazil, Argentina, Costa Rica, and Mexico threatens the democratic dialogue. This report provides a general overview of the trends of digital disinformation in Latin America, focusing on five country case studies facing digital disinformation campaigns in the last several years: Costa Rica, Mexico, Argentina, Brazil, and Venezuela. The study analyses in depth in each case the level of organisation of digital disinformation campaigns, their goals and means, and finally, the level of government pushback in each country. The findings highlight the importance of fostering fact-checking initiatives from civil society, strengthening trust in media, increasing pressure on social media platforms, and escalating the scrutiny of digital marketing companies and political parties as well as punishing them for their engagement in disinformation campaigns. The final section provides some policy recommendations as well as ideas for possible collaboration partners between Germany / the European Union and Latin America on this topic.