If you only have a few seconds, read these lines:

• At around 7:45 p.m. today, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva was released after the Supreme Federal Court ruled last night that prisoners who have not yet been convicted cannot remain in prison.
• The peak of interactions happened at 10:10 p.m., a few minutes after the decision was made public.
• The messages of Alberto Fernández, Lula, Ofelia Fernández and Axel Kicillof were the most retweeted.

Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva was released today after the presentation made by his attorney before the Federal Court of Curitiba. The Supreme Federal Court (STF) ruled – with six votes for and five against – that convicts cannot remain in prison unless all previous judicial instances have been exhausted, enforcing the principle of innocence. Lula was imprisoned on April 7, 2018 by the Operation Car Wash, in a case presented by judge Sergio Moro, Brazil’s current Minister of Justice.

In Argentina, the news had an impact on the political scenario in a moment when the connections with Brazil are shaken due to the declarations made by president Jair Bolsonaro against the president-elect Alberto Fernández, who demanded Lula’s freedom on several occasions.

103,100 tweets were published in Argentina from yesterday at 4 p.m. until today at 4 p.m., and the peak of activity was registered yesterday at 10:10 p.m., when the STF vote was defined. Up to 660 tweets per minute were posted.

Interactions on Twitter

Source: Elaborated by Chequeado based on the number of tweets published from November 7 at 4 p.m. until October 8 at 4 p.m. using the Trendsmap tool.

Almost 40% of the tweets used the hashtag #LulaLivre, followed by #LulaLivreAmanha (12.1%), #LulaLibre (8%). Among the most mentioned words were “lula” (52%), “livre” and “liberdade” (11%); and “supremo” (10%). Emojis used included the heart (5.8%), the hand “V” sign (4.3%) and the raised fist (2%).

Fernández shared a message celebrating the news a few minutes after 10 p.m. According to Trendsmap, that was the most retweeted and mentioned message, and it was bookmarked 45 thousand times.

Tweet: Brazil’s Federal Supreme Court ruled that prison sentences are enforceable only when they become final.
That’s the same thing we’ve been demanding in Argentina for years.
The demands of so many were worth it!
#LulaLivreAmanhã!

The messages posted by Lula, Ofelia Fernández (legislator in Buenos Aires elected for the Frente de Todos) and Axel Kicillof (governor-elect of Buenos Aires for the Frente de Todos) were also among the most retweeted, with 23,966, 2,694 and 2,587 shares, respectively. It is important to note that Trendsmap places all messages with the most retweets also regarding other aspects such as the number of followers per account.

On the other hand, the tweet made by Lula’s account and published yesterday at 9:49 p.m. was the most replied. It received 3,771 replies and 3,412 mentions.

Tweet

The accounts of the Argentinian communication vehicles and journalists also had an important role in the social network. With their messages about the STF vote, the Clarín and the C5N published the most influential tweets, a variable measured by Trendsmap based on the number of followers.

In addition, Tiempo Argentino (@tiempoarg) was the most mentioned, replied or retweeted account regarding the possible freedom of the former Brazilian president. Julia Strada (PhD in Economic Development, Master of Political Economy, Bachelor of Political Science and a columnist for the C5N and the radio Futurock), journalist Gustavo Sylvestre and El Destape Radio completed the ranking.

* 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.