Devo usar máscara ou não? Redes semânticas, desinformação e emoções no movimento anti-máscara no Twitter.

This article examines the narratives of the anti-mask movement by analyzing the evolution of the conversation about "muzzles" and masks on Twitter, comparing three time periods (2020–2023), and paying special attention to the Spanish case. While social science research on the pandemic is prolific, little attention has been given to the study of semantic networks. This work is based on data collected by the NON-CONSPIRA-HATE! Project (Conspiracy Theories Dataset, 2020-2023), comprising 5,509,549 organic tweets, from which a Spanish-language subsample of 556,549 tweets discussing muzzles, masks, and equivalent terms was collected. The temporal evolution of the discourse on masks was analyzed through tokens, mentions, hashtags, their co-occurrence networks (co-mentions, co-hashtags), community affiliations, and sentiment and emotion analysis. The study highlights the narrative prominence of the term "muzzle" within the anti-mask movement, as well as the diversity of co-mentions and co-hashtags networks, with both local and global actors, mentions, and narratives standing out. The latter demonstrate their centrality in the conspirative discourse within the Spanish-speaking sphere. In the case of Spain, the findings reveal significant distrust toward public authorities, strong criticism, and even anger directed at political leaders across the ideological spectrum, along with attacks on the media.