By Ana Regina Rêgo – Professor and Vice-Coordinator of PPGCOM, Federal University of Piauí (UFPI) and DX advisor
e Maria Helena Weber – Professor of Political Communication, Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul (UFRGS)

In the World Economic Forum's Global Risks reports for 2024 and 2025, disinformation was identified as a major risk to humanity and a cause for great concern in the short and medium term.

In this context, reality can become increasingly complex and difficult to understand, considering that the platformization of life and, mainly, the meeting of the interests of large technology corporations with the content production market has enabled the exponential growth of disinformation and the potentialization of its reach in several countries.

On the other hand, unilateralism and the exacerbation of national security actions on the political agendas of countries, especially the United States, are mentioned by those interviewed in the Global Risks Report 2025 as causing negative repercussions around the world. Such behaviors can have an impact on reducing transparency, as happens in authoritarian regimes. And, as the report emphasizes, such measures can contribute to the consolidation of authoritarian regimes and the regression of democratic regimes.

It is worth noting that contemporary democracy as a whole is experiencing crises that are putting its liberal principles and the set of rights, duties and freedoms guaranteed by the republican State at risk. This scenario indicates that liberal democratic regimes may not be fulfilling their promises of inclusion and equality, which may be leading populations in many historically democratic countries to become disillusioned with this type of regime.

Since the end of the 20th century, authoritarian ideologies have gradually gained voters and public space around the world. And these new configurations of political power, combined with moments of disillusionment with democracy, have been aggravated by the growing influence of social media and, more recently, Artificial Intelligence, in political narratives that distort facts and relativize the truth in favor of extremist ideals.

Read the full article.