What science is denied on social media? Reflections of an ethnographic research in a virtual negationist community

Abstract

Considering the historical context of the post-truth in which we are inserted, which has as one of its characteristics movements to attack the credibility of science inflated in social networks by political motivations of extremist leaders, we sought in this research to analyze how this discourse can influence conceptions about the construction of scientific knowledge of users of digital social networks. We performed an ethnography on Twitter, following a community of users commonly associated with negationism, containing Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro and his allies. We found four categories of user discourse, which we called: science versus “science”; a self-centered correlation of variables; an excessive demand for sources; and beyond the immediate belief. These categories show concepts that involve the idea of the existence of a neutral science, the construction of a form of knowledge that does not seek to structure generalizations and an absence of the user's own critical analysis. We argue that understanding how the attack on science is propagated on social networks and how negationists discourses influence conceptions about science and the construction of scientific knowledge is essential for thinking about specific scientific literacy strategies in the context of post-truth to combat massive proliferation of disinformation in networks.