The left’s digital engagement is here to stay. At least that's what leaders, influencers and President Lula (PT) himself guarantee in the face of mobilization on social media in the second round of elections.
Federal deputy André Janones (Rede-MG), with commands "urgent" and "explode", brought together more than 10 million people in "Lula's Army", on WhatsApp, and led the digital troop that was appointed by Lula as co-responsible for the turnaround on Flávio Bolsonaro (PL).
The PT member defeated his opponent with 51.8% of the votes, compared to 48.2%, being the first president of the country to win an election after finishing in second place in the first round — he had been behind the Bolsonarist in the first stage, with 45.2% of the votes compared to his rival's 47%.
Digital operations became a model of success around the world, earning Janones invitations to assist in left-wing campaigns in other countries, such as in the attempt to re-elect the Prime Minister of Spain, Pedro Sánchez. The deputy told Folha that the "Army" will be maintained to serve as a tool of popular pressure in favor of Lula in the next term.
“The main objective of this ‘Army’, post-election, is to compensate for the minority that President Lula will have in the Chamber and the Senate, because the extreme right has an overwhelming majority,” he said. “The ‘Lula Army’’s mission, from now on, is to give the president governability,” he added.
In his victory speech on Sunday, the president thanked Janones. He highlighted the parliamentarian's role in the digital mobilization of the campaign, called him a general and said that "he played an exponential role in this campaign to raise the morale of our troops daily, morning, noon and night."
At the insistence of Janones and other allies, Lula adopted the use of smartphones in the final stretch of the campaign, after years of resistance to technology, and promised to establish a direct channel of dialogue with the population, without depending on intermediaries.
"I am already learning to talk to my general and you can be sure that, from now on, I will talk a lot with the Brazilian people, many times a day, directly. I will not allow myself to be interpreted by journalists with bad faith. I will not. I will say what I think, what I do", he said in his victory speech on Sunday.
Like Janones, other politicians with high engagement on social media gained prominence in the campaign during the second round, such as elected federal deputies Ana Elisa (PT-MG), Jones Manoel (PSOL-PE) and Guilherme Cortez (PSOL-SP).
Cortez, with more than 2 million followers on Instagram, argued that the left needs to keep the digital mobilization structure active. According to him, the progressive camp took a while to understand the importance of social networks for the political dispute, but recovered ground in this second round.
"The right arrived earlier, developed in this field, benefiting from a series of things, including the social media algorithm", said the elected deputy. "To win the election it was necessary for us to take the offensive in this field, and we managed to do so, despite all the proven attempts to boycott our campaign through the applications."
This year's campaign was marked by accusations of interference by digital platforms in the election. As Folha showed, in internal messages from Meta (owner of Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp), employees recognized losses to Lula's accounts and benefits to Flávio's. The company denied interference.
Testing carried out by the newspaper also identified differences in treatment in the responses of the big tech artificial intelligence tool to requests to create campaign images for the two candidates. In the first round, the report showed that AI models circumvented the Electoral Law by promoting rankings among presidential candidates.
As Folha showed, government members and parliamentarians intend to rush to vote on the big tech competition regulation bill by December. The perception is that there is a favorable window for approval now, which will become narrower next year, when the new National Congress takes office.
Cortez defends the maintenance of digital mobilization accompanied by the regulation of platforms, without one excluding the other. He stated that the regulatory model must still be discussed with other actors, but raised the possibility of one that offers the option to "turn off" the algorithm.
The idea would be to offer the possibility of social network feeds without algorithmic recommendation. In this way, what would appear in the feed would be the content of acquaintances or followed profiles, and no longer what the platform understands will capture the user's attention.
Lula, also in his victory speech this Sunday, signaled that network regulation will be among his priorities. The president said he needed to "overcome the interference from outside", also referring to the unequal treatment of Meta in the campaign.
"This election was an election in which we had to overcome the interference coming from the outside in, through digital platforms, which we will have to regulate. It is not possible for us not to be aware that a crime in the digital world has to be treated the same as a crime in real life", stated the PT member.
The president added that it is not possible for billion-dollar companies not to pay taxes while trying to "direct the electoral result" in Brazil.
