The interview of former president Lula at the podcast Podpah mobilized Twitter on Thursday night (12/02), with more than 310 thousand mentions to the politician according to a monitoring carried out by the Department of Public Policy Analysis at Fundação Getulio Vargas. The interview had more than 280 thousand simultaneous views on YouTube, and reached more than 3.4 million views on November 3rd at 11am.

Evolution of mentions to Lula and Bolsonaro on Twitter
Analysis period: November 2nd at 11am until November 3rd at 11am

Source: Twitter

On Twitter, the live broadcast of the interview increased the volume of mentions to the former president and helped him surpass the references to Jair Bolsonaro (200 thousand), with sharp peaks of tweet numbers during the interview. The peaks of mentions started at 7pm, at the start of the broadcast, and eventually reached more than 50 thousand mentions per hour. There was surprise and celebration regarding the number of simultaneous views among the tweets with the most repercussion. There were also comparisons to the weekly live broadcast by Jair Bolsonaro. The major topics discussed by users included statements made by Lula regarding overcoming poverty, respecting social minorities and vulnerable groups, and about his proposal to pardon students who went into debt with the FIES.

It is interesting to note that the volume of mentions in the morning of November 3rd was above the volume observed in the morning of the interview, which indicates that the repercussions of the program continued beyond its airing. This can also be observed in the comparison of searches for Lula and Bolsonaro on Google Trends, in which the former president surpassed the current president at the start of the interview and remained more popular until the following morning.

Major hashtags about Lula’s Podpah interview on Twitter
Analysis period: November 2nd at 11am until November 3rd at 11am

Source: Twitter

Map of interactions about Lula’s Podpah interview on Twitter
Analysis period: November 2nd at 11am until November 3rd at 11am

Source: Twitter

Red – 28.51% of profiles | 41.65% of interactions
Group formed by politicians and supporters associated with the PT. These include the profiles @LulaOficial, @deputadofederal, @zehdeabreu and @brasil247. Its main publications celebrated the good audience level of the interview, sharing portions of the former president’s statements.

Orange – 7.47% of profiles | 6.66% of interactions
Group formed around the podcast’s official profile on Twitter. Composed mostly of profiles of young people who are not directly related with institutional politics and marked by comments and reproductions of statements made by the former president during the interview.

Blue – 6.34% of profiles | 5.40% of interactions
Group formed by government supporters such as the entrepreneur @LucianoHangBR and the influencers @kimpaim e @BrazilFight. The focused on criticizing Lula’s statements and opinions, without necessarily mentioning the podcast.

Lilac – 5.44% of profiles | 5.49% of interactions
Group formed by pages and profiles covering entertaingment and celebrities, such as @choquei, @siteptbr and @fofoqueioficial. Usually distant from daily political discussions, these profiles engaged in the discussion due to podcast’s notoriety in contemporary popular culture. The major publications in this group commented on Lula’s statements and approached him as if he were a celebrity. Some publications showed support for Lula’s candidacy.

Pink – 4.10% of profiles | 4.59% of interactions
Group formed by media outlets and center-left influencers. While the media outlets informed about the interview, the second group of profiles adopted a critical tone regarding Lula’s participation, considering it below expectations. Some profiles, such as the youtuber @felipeneto, demanded Lula’s position regarding the vote given by PT senators for the Precatory Bill.