Algorithmic Institutionalization of Democratic Erosion in Brazil

Abstract

This article examines democratic erosion in Latin America through the role of digital platforms and their algorithmic infrastructures, taking Brazil as a paradigmatic case. Drawing on the concept of necroalgorithmization, it argues that contemporary political disinformation is not merely the circulation of false content but a sociotechnical architecture that reorganizes regimes of visibility, silencing, and public participation. In dialogue with necropolitics, surveillance capitalism, and critical platform studies, the study adopts an exploratory qualitative approach based on three cases of Coordinated Inauthentic Behavior removed by Meta and analyzed by the Digital Forensic Research Lab. Guided by the discursive triangle of algorithmic textuality, the analysis shows how algorithms operate as invisible institutions that amplify extremist affects, manufacture consensus, and weaken democratic deliberation.