With music blaring, parade floats and glitter in the colours of the Brazilian flag, several hundred supporters rallied in street-carnival style on Wednesday in the working-class neighbourhood of Bangu, in western Rio, to support right-wing presidential candidate Flavio Bolsonaro. In the heart of the Vidigal _favela_ some 40 kilometres (25 miles) away, a few dozen members of President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva's Workers’ Party were rallying the troops by handing out flyers to the last undecided voters. Since the extremely close first-round results were announced on October 4, war has been declared between the two candidates.
The self-proclaimed “Commander-in-Chief of the President”, MP André Janones of Minas Gerais, has created “Lula’s army” – a WhatsApp channel that garnered more than 8 million followers in just a few days. The channel aims to mobilise activists and anti-_Bolsonaristas_ by issuing them challenges on social media or in the streets. Surprised at not having won the first round, Lula has handed over control of his campaign to the younger generation of elected party officials.
These digital soldiers have re-energised his campaign, which was criticised for its inertia before the first round. But it may be too little, too late. The octogenarian president has recently begun filming himself, always accompanied by activists under 30.
The goal is to win over young non-voters, some 6.9 million Brazilians – only a fraction of those would have been enough to tip the election. For Josue Medeiros, coordinator of the Political and Electoral Observatory at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, this digital awakening could make the difference. It means this digital mobilisation is working; it creates doubt and reduces the sense that President Lula was being rejected, which was very strong before the first round.” The Bolsonarist camp, for its part, is not sitting on its hands.
Facing Lula’s army, Flavio has unleashed his own “troops”, led by young MP Nikolas Ferreira, who can activate his 25 million followers on demand. Using AI-generated content to disparage left-wing rallies. The digital battle has also moved into the courts.
Accused of favouring the right-wing candidate, Lula’s camp denounced Meta for “algorithmic manipulation” in Bolsonaro's favour and asked the Superior Electoral Court to annul the challenger's candidacy. Bolsonaro, in turn, accused the incumbent of “abuse of power” for flooding WhatsApp with content praising his government’s record. Under pressure from the high court, which threatened the company with a fine of around R$500,000 (€88,500) per day, Meta now says it has put measures in place to guarantee equal treatment of both candidates.
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