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Whenever a story with a wild headline came her way, Mary Rose Filgueiras Lacerda used to skim it and forward it on without any second thoughts.
每当一篇标题很疯狂的报道出现时，玛丽·罗斯·菲尔盖拉斯·拉瑟达总是会快速浏览一遍，然后毫不犹豫地转发。
But when the eye-popping stories arrived with more frequency on WhatsApp, she got suspicious.
但当这些令人瞠目结舌的报道在WhatsApp上出现得越来越频繁时，她开始怀疑了。
“I thought, this is strange. It can’t all be true,” says Ms. Lacerda, a retiree who lives in Divinópolis, in Brazil’s Minas Gerais state.
“我想，这太奇怪了。这不可能都是真的，”居住在巴西米纳斯吉拉斯州(Minas Gerais state)迪维诺波利斯(Divinópolis)的退休人员拉瑟达女士说。
She decided to take action, enrolling in a digital course teaching Brazilians over the age of 50 how to spot fake news.
她决定采取行动，参加了一个教50岁以上的巴西人如何识别假新闻的数字课程。
Over five days, daily messages urged her to read beyond the headlines and to double check her sources.
在五天的时间里，每天都有消息督促她阅读新闻标题之外的内容，并再次检查消息来源。
Short YouTube videos taught her how to spot fakes and detailed how videos, images, and memes can be doctored.
YouTube上的短视频教会了她如何识别假新闻，并详细介绍了如何篡改视频、图片和表情包。
“I confess I used to forward lots of fake news, because I thought they were true,” Ms. Lacerda says.
“我承认，我过去转发了很多假新闻，因为我认为这些新闻是真的，”拉瑟达说。
“What I learned ... showed me we need to stay alert.”
“我学到的是…… 让我知道我们需要保持警惕。”
Ms. Lacerda’s concerns are not misplaced.
拉瑟达的担忧并非杞人忧天。
Fake news and misinformation campaigns have hit Brazil hard over the past five years.
过去五年里，虚假新闻和虚假信息活动严重打击了巴西。
And even with Brazil’s presidential elections still months away in October, fake news about the upcoming election is already spreading across platforms like WhatsApp, Facebook, Telegram, and TikTok.
尽管距离10月份的巴西总统选举还有几个月，但关于即将到来的选举的假新闻已经在WhatsApp、Facebook、Telegram和TikTok等平台上传播。
Fake news has been a global scourge in recent years, with online messaging services and social media often overshadowing traditional media as go-to sources of information.
近年来，假新闻一直是一个全球性的祸害，在线消息服务和社交媒体往往盖过了传统媒体作为信息来源的地位。
The phenomenon has left a profound mark on Brazil, where experts say low education levels, mistrust of institutions, and heavy social media use have created a perfect breeding ground for misinformation.
这一现象在巴西留下了深刻的印记，巴西专家表示，教育水平低、不信任机构和大量使用社交媒体为虚假信息的滋生创造了完美的土壤。
Brazil is one of the world’s heaviest users of social media, with about 159 million – or 75% of the population – on at least one platform.
巴西是世界上使用社交媒体最多的国家之一，约有1.59亿人(占总人口的75%)至少使用一个社交媒体平台。
And the way messages are sent, relying more on voice memos or images overwritten with text, makes them hard to screen en masse.
而且，信息的发送方式更多地依赖于语音备忘录或被文字覆盖的图像，这使得信息很难被全部筛选。
In 2018, a torrent of disinformation favoring President Jair Bolsonaro helped sweep the far-right candidate to a surprise victory.
2018年，支持总统雅伊尔·博尔索纳罗(Jair Bolsonaro)的虚假信息洪流帮助这位极右翼候选人意外地获得胜利。
And although a fresh wave of election disinformation is fueling concerns about Brazil’s democratic health, the South American giant may also be offering new paths toward combating it.
尽管一波新的选举虚假信息加剧了人们对巴西民主健康状况的担忧，但这个南美巨人可能也提供了与之斗争的新途径。
Congress has proposed legislation to curb the spread of fake news.
国会已经提议立法遏制假新闻的传播。
The Supreme Court is trying to force social networks to more effectively police users.
最高法院正试图迫使社交网络更有效地监督用户。
Brazil’s electoral court has struck deals with tech giants to screen out fake news and report those who create it to authorities.
巴西选举法庭与科技巨头达成协议，将屏蔽假新闻，并向当局报告制造假新闻的人。
