A Tale of Two Insurrections: Lessons for Disinformation Research From the Jan. 6 and 8 Attacks

Trespassers on the ramp of the Brazilian Congressional Palace on Jan. 8, 2023. (Marcelo Camargo, https://tinyurl.com/bdzrnjcc; CC Attribution 4.0 International, https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/deed.en)

This year’s Jan. 8 attack on Brazilian democracy drew quick comparisons to the storming of the U.S. Capitol almost exactly two years prior. Both riots sought to overturn the election results of the preceding presidential election, in the U.S. by preventing its certification and in Brazil by provoking intervention from the country’s armed forces. Both were motivated by fictitious …

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