• The debate on Twitter was marked by the silence of the government support group, criticism against the president, and the friendly treatment of Roberto Jefferson by the Federal Police;
• On Telegram ,there was a lack of alignment about the episode. While some pro-Bolsonaro sectors celebrated Jefferson’s imprisonment, associating him with Lula, others claimed the former congressman is a “wronged fighter”;
• The pro-government group sought to disassociate Bolsonaro with the episode, withdrawing the president’s image to that of Roberto Jefferson. At the same time, there was criticism of the “tyranny” of the legal system;
• The opposition stood out in interactions on Facebook, using the episode to mobilize a negative campaign against Bolsonaro.

Roberto Jefferson’s resistance to comply with a Federal Police mandate prompted a significant increase in the debate about Security, with more than 1.4 million mentions on Twitter between October 23 at midnight and October 24 at midday. Those are the findings of a monitoring carried out by the School of Communication, Media and Information of Fundação Getulio Vargas (FGV ECMI), which also found a strong association between the episode and President Jair Bolsonaro, who was mentioned in more than 572 thousand tweets. On Facebook, the debate was dominated by the left, which accounted for 38.7% of the pages and public groups that shared links about the episode.

 

Facebook

Map of interactions on Facebook
Period: October 23 at midnight until October 24 at midday

 

Source: Facebook | Elaborated by: School of Communication, Media and Information at FGV

Opposition to Bolsonaro (Red) – 38.71% of profiles
Group composed of left-wing and center groups and pages that strongly oppose Bolsonaro. After the episode involving Roberto Jefferson, the cluster focused on sharing links associating the former congressman with the president. The group concentrated on mobilizing the episode for electoral purposes, criticizing Bolsonaro’s claim that he did not have any pictures with Jefferson and promoting the theory that the episode was staged together with the president.

Bolsonaro’s support group (Blue) – 22.85% of profiles
Group supporting the government and Bolsonaro, focusing on sharing links to news stories containing updates and details about Roberto Jefferson’s imprisonment. To a certain extent, sharing these news connects profiles in the blue and red clusters. However, the two groups are distant due to the fact that the government support group commented on links in which Jefferson was seen as someone who was resisting tyranny. Therefore, even though the congressman’s violence was condemned, actors such as Carla Zambelli also criticized the alleged ‘unconstitutional actions’ of the legal system. As a secondary discussion, there was also a mobilization to associate Jefferson with Lula due to the mensalão scandal.

Purchase and sale groups and pages (Green) – 2.88% of profiles
Group formed by purchase and sale groups that showed connections with the red cluster by associating Bolsonaro with Roberto Jefferson. As a secondary discussion, the group also made connections with the government support group by sharing links of Jovem Pan. This dubiousness suggests a less cohesive participation of this group, which was mostly interesting in the former congressman’s violent reaction against the Federal Police officers.

Local news (Pink) – 1.48% of profiles
Group that is similar to the green cluster, showing connections to different political fields. That happened because the group discussed a series of news stories with updates about the episode involving Roberto Jefferson. In a secondary way, there were connections with pro-Bolsonaro pages and profiles, associating Jefferson with Lula or sharing the opinions of the president’s allies, such as Celina Leão.

 

Twitter

Evolution of mentions to topics on Twitter
Period: October 23 at midnight until October 24 at midday

Source: Twitter | Elaborated by: School of Communication, Media and Information at FGV

 

• While other topics maintained an expected pattern of debate, the discussion about security had a high peak on Sunday afternoon (23), driven mostly by the episode involving Roberto Jefferson.
• With a strong participation of the opposition and a relative silence of the government support group, the discussion considered the shots fired by Jefferson against Federal Police officers to be unjustifiable. It is understood that the former congressman’s actions are a reflection of the alleged violent nature of those who support President Bolsonaro, in addition to the incoherence of attacking police officers.
• As quickly as it grew, the discussion on security soon slowed down. Some narratives stayed in the debate after the peak, with strong criticism of the friendly treatment of Jefferson by the Federal Police. Episodes of police violence against black and poor people were remembered to ground the criticism.
• In addition, Bolsonaro continued to be associated with the former congressman, with comments using the episode to indicate the alleged dangers of supporting Bolsonaro.

 

Word cloud of the debate about security on Twitter
Period: October 23 at midnight until October 24 at midday

Source: Twitter | Elaborated by: School of Communication, Media and Information at FGV

• The involvement of the Minister of Justice, Anderson Torres, in the episode involving Roberto Jefferson prompted a series of criticism against Bolsonaro. The president was seen as incoherent by offering ‘privileged treatment’ to a ‘criminal’, particularly since his motto is ‘a good criminal is a dead criminal’;
• After the pro-government group attempted to disassociate Bolsonaro from Jefferson, the opposition reacted, with intense sharing of the expression “Roberto Jefferson is Bolsonaro” and indicating that the former congressman was the president’s campaign coordinator;
• The actions of the former congressman against the Federal Police officers were used as part of a negative campaign against Bolsonaro, aiming to highlight the violent nature of some of the president’s supporters and claim that ‘supporting Bolsonaro kills’;
• The slurs and attacks made by Jefferson against Minister Cármen Lúcia had less repercussion than the action against the police officers. There were demonstrations of support to the minister and speculations that the attack had been staged with Bolsonaro;
• The president’s supporters had a participation in the discussion regarding the minister, focusing on sharing a tweet made by Jair Bolsonaro about the episode. However, the group did not defend Jefferson, which was seen by the opposition as ‘treason’ of the former congressman.

 

Telegram

 

Examples of the discussion on Telegram

 

Period: October 23 at midnight until October 24 at midday

Source: Telegram | Elaborated by: School of Communication, Media and Information at FGV

• The group avoided talking about the episode itself, focusing on how the left and the ‘PT digital militia’ were allegedly using the episode to make Bolsonaro lose votes;
• There was a clear attempt to disassociate Bolsonaro from Roberto Jefferson, with instructions to compare to episode to alleged deaths caused by the MST, associating the movement with Lula. There were claims that Jefferson tried to get closer to Bolsonaro, but that the president kept his distance.

 

Examples of the discussion on Telegram

 

 

Period: October 23 at midnight until October 24 at midday

Source: Telegram | Elaborated by: School of Communication, Media and Information at FGV

 

• In a few moments, the imprisonment of the former congressman was celebrated as an indication that corruption was being “swept away” from Brazil. In that sense, Jefferson was compared to Lula; from this point of view, both were criminals and ‘mensalão partners’;
• However, there was no consensus on that regard, with other Bolsonaro supporters stating that celebrating Jefferson’s imprisonment meant siding with Alexandre de Moraes. In a secondary discussion, the former congressman was compared to Daniel Silveira, both seen as ‘wronged fighters’. This suggests a lack of alignment about the episode.