An analysis of the circulation of and engagement with content featuring anti-democratic discourse on TikTok.
This article starts from a set of more than 46,000 TikTok posts associated with hashtags supporting former president Jair Bolsonaro and his main agendas, and analyzes how content related to anti-democratic demonstrations resonates on the platform. The central hypothesis suggests that the volume of content inciting anti-democratic acts tends to increase at critical moments for Bolsonarism. The results indicate that content with an anti-democratic bias, although rarely taken down, suffers shadowbanning from the platform’s moderation. In contrast, TikTok seems to reward content associated with a comic tone, which may favor the dissemination of extremist discourse camouflaged as harmless jokes.
Authors: Viktor Chagas e Luiza de Mello Stefano
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CHAGAS, V.; STEFANO, L. de M. Entre dancinhas e gritos por intervenção militar: análise da circulação e do engajamento em conteúdos com discursos antidemocráticos no TikTok. Liinc em Revista, Rio de Janeiro, v. 21, n. 2, e7704, 2025.