This is not good news for Brazilian democracy: less than a month before the presidential election (first round on October 2), the battle is fought on the minefield social networks, where Jair Bolsonaro is king. If he seeks a second term in an unfavorable position in the polls, which only lend him 32% of voting intentions against 45% for his predecessor Lula da Silva, he is the one who is leading the race in the digital arena. . On Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and TikTok, the outgoing president and leader of the far right has a total of 45.9 million subscribers, while the boss of the left has “only” 16.1 million.
Jair Bolsonaro, who willingly allows himself to be photographed strumming on his laptop, masters the powerful and outrageous language of the Internet. His “What legitimacy do you have to talk about me, you ex-prisoner?”, launched to Lula during their televised face-to-face at the end of August, seems to have been tailor-made to create buzz on the networks. social. It doesn’t matter that the corruption convictions that landed his opponent in prison have been overturned. On his Instagram page, this punchline received… 1.3 million “likes”.
Four years ago, the outsider Bolsonaro, who then only had 8 seconds a day of television spots, had managed to get elected thanks to his campaign on these interactive platforms which are arousing real enthusiasm in Brazil. “Even today, it draws its political strength from social networks, where it keeps its troops mobilized, observes journalist Pedro Doria, founder of the Meio newsletter. The aging left is lagging considerably behind in this area. . Lula’s lieutenants are the same as they were twenty years ago, when he came to power. But Brazil has changed.”
A war of influencers
The Latin American giant now has more than one smartphone per inhabitant (242 million so-called “smart” telephones for 214 million inhabitants). The boss of the Workers’ Party (PT), he still refuses to have one. Lula is a man of contact, a tribune who walks the podiums and beats the pavement to speak to the people “eye to eye”. On Twitter, Facebook or Instagram, he cultivates a posture of head of state, communicating in a stilted language which hardly corresponds to him. More conducive to his talent as a speaker, television certainly remains strategic in the campaign. The interviews of the main candidates have indeed broken audience records.
However, explains Fabio Malini, coordinator of the Laboratory for Image and Cyberculture Studies at the University of Espirito Santo, “social networks have definitely imposed themselves in public debate and occupy a growing place in communication Politics”. Specialized in the dynamics of these new media, he however ensures that Jair Bolsonaro has lost ground in his favorite arena. “Beyond the candidates themselves, the battle that is being waged there also opposes their ecosystems, develops Malini. That of the Head of State still includes certain public figures followed by millions of Internet users, such as his sons [engagés en politique, NDLR] or the main evangelical pastors, who support it. But his practice of power has made him lose weighty allies.” Proven support, the player Neymar does not, however, call for a vote for him. Lula, for his part, benefits from the rallying of popular influencers and show business stars, such as singer Anitta, with 62.5 million subscribers, to name only the Instagram network.
However, concern is gaining the left. And for good reason: in Brazil, 7 out of 10 Internet users get their information from social networks, where disinformation is weakly combated by the platforms. In addition, many people use WhatsApp messaging, where false information circulates even more freely. In 2018, there was talk of penis-shaped baby bottles that Fernando Haddad, the PT candidate beaten in the second round by Jair Bolsonaro, would have intended to distribute in nurseries if he was elected…
“A double between official communication and misinformation”
This year, rumor has it that Lula is preparing to close the evangelical temples if he wins. The fake news landed on no less than 142 million profiles on the Twitter network alone, according to a count by the Bites Institute. And “denials prove to be counter-productive”, observes André Eler, its deputy director. Meanwhile, the first lady, Michelle Bolsonaro, fervent Pentecostal and excellent orator, runs the cults to swear that the battle opposes “good against evil”. “We are witnessing a very well-crafted double between official communication and misinformation, describes journalist Pedro Doria. The info that airs on TV corresponds to the infox broadcast on messaging and social networks. Result, Jair Bolsonaro is now 18 points ahead of Lula among evangelicals (a quarter of the electorate). No doubt, his spindoctor and son “number 2”, Carlos Bolsonaro, is a fine strategist.
To face “pitbull”, his nickname, the PT recruited the young deputy André Janones, 38, a pure product of social networks. This rising figure of evangelical populism has 7.9 million subscribers on Facebook, one and a half times more than Lula himself. Now on the front line on social networks, André Janones avoids Lula having to directly face the Bolsonaro strike force. Insults, montages of dubious taste, like the one showing the head of state bent over on the toilet: the so-called “troll of the left” uses the same weapons as the adversary. It would be, he said, “the only way to confront Bolsonarism”.