13 Dec

#DebateEnRedes: “#ArgentinaUnida” was the most used hashtag on Twitter to talk about the inauguration of Alberto Fernández as president of Argentina

Por Celeste Gómez Wagner and Mariela García

Updated 23 de January, 2020 at 11:01 am

If you only have a few seconds, read these lines:
On Tuesday, Fernández took office as president before the Legislative Assembly. The ministers took office in the afternoon while a music festival happened at the Plaza de Mayo. On December 7, Mauricio Macri received a support and farewell march.
320,600 tweets were registered about these topics in the country. The most used hashtag was “#ArgentinaUnida” (4.5%), a hashtag promoted by the new president.
The most shared messages were not made by accounts of public figures, contrary to what has been observed in other analyses.

In the morning of December 10, Alberto Fernández took office before the Legislative Assembly as President of the Nation, together with his ticket partner Cristina Fernández de Kirchner. The president received the presidential cane and sash from Mauricio Macri and then made his first speech as Chief of State in the National Country. Chequeado carried out a live collective verification in his announcements.

He emphasized his call “with no distinction to put Argentina back on its feet” in order to “overcome the wall of resentment and hatred among Argentinians”, in addition to other highlights. The ceremony was transmitted in the social networks of the President and in the official account of the Casa Rosada.

The ministers took office in the afternoon and a music festival started at 2 p.m. at the Plaza de Mayo, which ended after 9 p.m. with the words of the vice-president first, and then the president’s message and a fireworks show.

Before the beginning of the new administration and having the Plaza de Mayo as its scenery, there was a support and farewell march for Macri on December 7. On Monday, upon Fernández’ request, the bars were removed from the square.

Chequeado analyzed what was discussed on Twitter about the call in favor of the former president and Fernández’ inauguration from Saturday, December 7 at 8 a.m. until Wednesday, December 11 at the same time. 320,600 tweets were registered in Argentina. The peak of interactions happened on Tuesday at midday during the inauguration ceremony.

Interactions on Twitter about the inauguration of Alberto Fernández

Graph elaborated in-house based on data obtained from Trendsmap about the interactions generated on Twitter from December 7 at 8 a.m. until Wednesday, December 11, at the same time, referring to the inauguration of Alberto Fernandez.

The most used hashtag in the conversation was #ArgentinaUnida (”United Argentina”, with 4.5%), promoted by Fernández (for example, see here). It was followed by the three hashtags about the march supporting Macri: #7DMarchaDeLaMitadDelPais (“December 7, half the country marches”, with 3.5%), #7DEstoRecienEmpieza (“December 7, it’s only the beginning”, with 3.5%), #7DYoVoy (“December 7, I’m coming”, with 2.6%). In fifth place in the ranking came #Volvimos (“We’re back”), which was used in 2.2% of the tweets to celebrate the return of the Peronism to the Casa Rosada.

Based on data obtained through Brandwatch, the most used words were “president”, “thanks”, “country”, “government” and “people”.

Most used words and hashtags on Twitter

The data refers to the activity on Twitter between 8 a.m. on December 7 until December 11 at the same time in Argentina.
Source: Elaborated by Chequeado based on a Brandwatch keyword search The information corresponds to a sample of 20% of the total number of tweets shared in the period analyzed.

Macri surpassed Fernández in number of mentions from December 7 to 9, but both in the inauguration day and the following day the chief of State surpassed his predecessor with double the number of mentions.

Mentions to Alberto Fernández and Mauricio Macri on Twitter

s related to the electoral process and to presidential election between Mauricio Macri and Alberto Fernández. The information corresponds to a sample of 20% of the total number of tweets shared between 8 a.m. on December 7 until December 11 at the same time in Argentina.

Contrary to what was found in other analyses (for example, here), in this case, the most shared messages were not posted by accounts of public figures. The first was published by @MilagrosDwarf, an account that is active since 2012, has more than 10 thousand followers, and claims to be a social worker. One day before the inauguration, they said: “Tomorrow we say goodbye to Michetti, who celebrated the fact that abortion didn’t become a law, to Vidal, who said that poor people don’t go to college, to Bullrich, who shoots retired people. To Macri, who was responsible for six out of ten children not eating. They’re gone and may they never come back.” His got 12 thousand shares and 35 thousand likes.

Tweet: Tomorrow we say goodbye to Michetti, who celebrated the fact that abortion didn’t become a law, to Vidal, who said that poor people don’t go to college, to Bullrich, who shoots retired people. To Macri, who was responsible for six out of ten children not eating.
They’re gone and may they never come back.

The second most shared tweet was also made by a user that is not publicly known (@Luulia7x, who has 397 followers and is active since 2013). He criticized Cristina Fernández de Kirchner by calling her an “elitist bourgeois” and a “bastard”. His message was shared 4.800 times and received 20.500 likes. He referred to the detached way the vice-president treated Macri during the mandate transition, which also prompted memes in the social networks (for example, see here).

The most mentioned tweet (shared with additional comments) was published by @elcoya1977, one of the active accounts close to the Juntos por el Cambio. He shared a photo of the march supporting the outgoing government and added: “There is no report in the history of Argentinian politics of a PRESIDENT leaving their office the way he did today”. And he emphasized: “This is dedicated to those who believe that the SQUARES are full of BREAD, SAUSAGE and WINE”. In general, the comments supported his words (see here or here, for example), but some also mentioned him with criticism (see here).

Like in a previous analysis, the most active accounts about this topic (considering mentions, replies and retweets) were the ones belonging to president Fernández and to the user Diego Álzaga Unzué (@atlanticsurff), who is close to the Juntos por el Cambio. Once again, the official account of a public figure competes for first place against an account that is not verified and has published false content in other occasions.

The new account of the chief of state also published the message which obtained the most replies. He said: “Thank you all for your support and messages of affection. A new stage has begun and we have the challenge of putting our dear Argentina back on its feet. I know that I can count on you. You can count on me.” It had 11,600 comments (for support or criticism), 23,000 retweets and 156,400 likes.

* The Digital Democracy Room is a project of FGV DAPP in Brazil in partnership with Chequeado, Linterna Verde and Ojo Público. It’s goal is to monitor and analyze the digital conversations regarding the electoral context.

The analysis is available the website of Chequeado here.