CRIMINAL LIABILITY FOR FAKE NEWS IN ELECTIONS

Abstract

With each new election, the use of the internet and its electoral campaign propagation mechanisms grows more and more. The question arises whether the dissemination of images and news about the candidates would be a free expression of the users' will. It turns out that, despite being done in the virtual environment, the same rules that regulate the electoral process prevail, applied to candidates and voters, especially in the case of a crime. Characterized by the creation of information known to be untrue, the impact that fake news had on national elections from 2018 onwards is undeniable, since several lies were released that offended the candidates' honor, leading to the loss of voters driven by fake news. Thus, in addition to the classification contained in the Penal Code in relation to the crimes of insult, defamation and slander, it is also necessary to analyze the possibility of criminal liability for the practice of creating and disseminating false news with electoral intent. Given this new scenario of the Brazilian electoral system, a study is presented with the general objective of analyzing criminal liability arising from the dissemination of false news in Brazilian elections, through bibliographic and exploratory research.