Anti-woke agenda, gender issues, revisionism and hate speech communities on Brazilian Telegram: from harmful reactionary speech to the crime of glorifying Nazism and Hitler

TL;DR

This study characterizes Brazilian conspiracy communities on Telegram, revealing how anti-woke, hate speech, and revisionist groups interconnect and escalate during crises, propagating extremist ideologies and misinformation.

Contribution

It provides a detailed analysis of Brazilian Telegram conspiracy communities, highlighting their structure, themes, and interconnections, and introduces a replicable methodology for studying such groups.

Findings

Anti-woke communities are central in Brazil's conspiracy ecosystem.

Hate speech and revisionism increase during crises, indicating polarization.

Nazi groups on Telegram promote Hitler and extremist ideologies.

Abstract

Resistance to progressive policies and hate speech have been consolidating on Brazilian Telegram, with anti-woke communities rejecting diversity and promoting a worldview that sees these social changes as a threat. Therefore, this study aims to address the research question: how are Brazilian conspiracy theory communities on anti-woke agenda, gender issues, revisionism and hate speech topics characterized and articulated on Telegram? It is worth noting that this study is part of a series of seven studies whose main objective is to understand and characterize Brazilian conspiracy theory communities on Telegram. This series of seven studies is openly and originally available on arXiv at Cornell University, applying a mirrored method across the seven studies, changing only the thematic object of analysis and providing investigation replicability, including with proprietary and authored codes, adding to the culture of free and open-source software. Regarding the main findings of this study, the following were observed: Anti-woke communities emerge as central forces in the Brazilian conspiracy ecosystem; During crises, mentions of hate speech and revisionism have increased significantly, reflecting polarization; Nazi communities on Telegram propagate extremist ideologies, glorifying Hitler; The interconnectivity between anti-woke, anti-gender and revisionism strengthens the ecosystem of hate; Anti-gender speech facilitates the spread of anti-vaccine disinformation, creating an intersection between health and conspiracy.