Study finds disinformation “central to CHEGA’s digital strategy” – Portugal Resident

Questions surrounding an apparent break-in at André Ventura’s parliamentary office have taken on added significance following the publication of academic research identifying disinformation as a “structural element” of CHEGA’s digital communications strategy.

Ventura said “essential documents” intended for a parliamentary inquiry into Interior Minister Luís Neves’s record as director of the Polícia Judiciária had been stolen from the office last week.

But aspects of the incident have prompted scepticism among media commentators. Some have remarked on the seemingly selective nature of a break-in in which nothing was apparently damaged — not even a picture of the Virgin Mary found lying on the floor with a rosary draped over it.

Columnist Miguel Sousa Tavares has also raised a more pointed possibility: that the disappearance of supposedly vital documents could prove “very convenient” if those documents never existed in the first place.

No evidence has emerged to establish such a scenario, and the doubts raised by commentators do not disprove Ventura’s account. They do, however, underline the increasingly contested line between fact, political narrative and spectacle in CHEGA’s public communications.

Research by academic Ana Filipa Joaquim has now concluded that disinformation became embedded in the party’s digital strategy between the legislative elections of 2019 and 2024, alongside propaganda techniques and messages tailored to social media platforms.

Joaquim examined CHEGA’s output during the 10 days before and after each of the legislative elections held in 2019, 2022 and 2024.

“There was increasing use of disinformation during these periods, but from 2022 onwards there was above all a professionalisation, through the more consistent use of misinformation and malinformation,” she told Lusa.

The research distinguished between deliberate disinformation; misinformation, meaning inaccurate material shared without necessarily intending to deceive; and malinformation, in which genuine information is removed from its proper context and used to create a misleading impression.

A fourth category covering satire and parody was added because of the frequency with which CHEGA used memes, sarcasm and humour to deliver political messages.

According to Joaquim, such techniques introduce ambiguity and make it easier to avoid responsibility for the claims being circulated.

Deliberate disinformation accounted for 55.77% of the cases identified in the 2019 sample. Its share declined to 41.91% in 2022 before rising slightly to 45.03% in 2024, as the party diversified its use of other forms of misleading content.

Misinformation was most commonly found in the oversimplification of complex subjects such as housing and taxation. Malinformation tended to involve genuine information presented without context to reinforce narratives of institutional failure.

The study found that these techniques were not used in isolation. They were combined with propaganda and moral framing designed to increase the emotional force of posts, encourage sharing and mobilise supporters.

Average engagement also rose considerably over the three election periods. Likes increased from an average of 905 to around 1,500 per post, while comments climbed from 133 to 400. Average shares ranged between 189 and 250.

Joaquim said the results pointed to increasingly sophisticated content and a better understanding of how social media algorithms can be used to command attention and shape the public agenda.

The research does not, however, establish that CHEGA’s communications strategy caused the party’s electoral growth.

“What I can say is that there was increased use of these strategies, growth in social media engagement and also electoral growth,” Joaquim said. “My research does not demonstrate that one caused the other.”

She said she hoped the findings would encourage greater scrutiny of political content online — particularly messages offering simple answers to complicated problems.

“I would like people to make the effort to understand the context of these messages and not accept as obvious everything that appears to offer simple solutions,” she said.

Ana Filipa Joaquim analysed 583 posts by CHEGA on Facebook for her investigation. Image of acadmeic investigator, António Cotrim/ Lusa

Source information: LUSA/ TVI/ SIC Notícias