MecanismoOnline pile-ons, analysed with data
 PT

Sometimes a whole group turns against a single person. It has a name, it has a shape, and it has been described before.

A research project on the scapegoat mechanism in social networks: real episodes of online pile-ons in Brazil, analysed with data, to show what happens in the network when the accusation converges on one person.

Theory What the scapegoat mechanism is René Girard’s mimetic theory and the four stereotypes of persecution, in a ten-minute read. Research Method and measures How the cases were collected and turned into daily mention networks, what each measure means, how stance is classified, and what the data cannot say. Model The Scapegoat model An executable hypothesis in NetLogo: a few rules, five scenarios, curves aligned on the expulsion — built before the data were collected. Cases The eight cases, in one paragraph each Eight Brazilian episodes, 2014 to 2025, summarised in English, with links to the full Portuguese pages.

This is the English section of the site: five pages, this one included. The case pages, the analysis and the data policy are in Portuguese; browser translation handles their prose, and the glossary of chart labels covers the words inside their charts. To write to the research: [email protected].

What the data show

A pile-on has a network signature

In the cases analysed, one shape repeats, with variations: attention concentrates, interactions converge — almost always on a single account — and, when the mechanism completes, the person at the centre tends to be talked about more than talked to. Concentration and convergence are not metaphors: they are measurable.

A cause used as a weapon

2021 · X/Twitter + TV
A reality-show contestant seen by the public as having used the debate on racism against another contestant. The case in which the convergence closed fastest — even with contestation present from the first day.
violent unanimityone-day star

A live defence of a Nazi party

2022 · X/Twitter
Remarks on the existence of a Nazi party during a live broadcast. Loss of sponsors, exit from the programme, and migration of the accusation to secondary targets.
substitute victimtarget addressed

Irony about a political death

2025 · X/Twitter
Reaction to ironic comments on the assassination of a foreign political commentator. A coupling between an external event and Brazilian networks — and the case in which contestation was most organised, without preventing the sanction.
counter-publicscontested consummation

The case pages are in Portuguese.

All the cases, in English →