This week in the Digital Debate we analyzed publications about the constituent process and the work of the Convention on Twitter. The debate on social networks was marked by the visit of the Venezuelan adversary Leopoldo López to the country, invited by a group of Constituents, and by the second round of the presidential elections next Sunday, December 19.

Summary
114,100 tweets
96,800 retweets (85%)
9,200 replies (8%)

Words

The words used the most on Twitter publications this week were “leopoldo”, “lópez”, “chile”, “proceso”, and “venezuela”.

The words appearing in the cloud based on the data are related to the visit of the adversary Leopoldo López, who was in the country invited by Constituents of Vamos por Chile. The reason for his visit was to share the Venezuelan experience with the Constituent Assembly in 1999. Leopoldo López visited the location of the former National Congress (where the Convention’s work is carried out) on Tuesday, December 7, and warned that he “saw many similarities” between the current Chilean process and the process that happened 20 years ago in Venezuela, stating that the Venezuelan constituent process was “the beginning of the end of democracy” in that country.

In an interview with CNN Chile on that same Tuesday, the President of the Directive Board of the Convention, Elisa Loncón, stated that “there is a part of the right wing that has always tried to boycott the process, and we wouldn’t like this visit to be used as an instrument to attack the Convention”.

Leopoldo López also had a meeting the the presidential candidate for the Christian Social Front, José Antonio Kast. After the meeting, the candidate stated that López “comes from a future to which we don’t want to go as Chileans”, and valued the experience brought by the visitor to the constituent process and to the work of the Convention.

Hashtags

The main hashtags used on Twitter this week regarding the constituent process were #canal24horas, #candidatollegótuhora, #candidatollegotuhora, #lascarasdelamoneda, #constituyentesporelagua, #kastenmega, and #rechazodesalida2022.

The hashtags #lascarasdelamoneda, #candidatollegótuhora and #candidatollegotuhora were related to TV programs that invited the presidential candidates Gabriel Boric and José Antonio Kast on different days.

In turn, the hashtag #canal24horas was used by the account @24HorasTVN in the tweet with the highest number of retweets this week.

Lastly, the hashtag #ConstituyentesPorElAgua appeared together with the news that a new norm regarding water was going to be presented at the Constituent Convention on Thursday, December 9. The vice-president of the Convention, Jaime Bassa, made the following publication on his Twitter account: “Tomorrow we will present an initiative to recognize and protect the right to water and sanitation in the new Constitution… The Convention advances. #ConstituyentesPorElAgua”. Other Constituents also celebrated and shared the news using that hashtag.

Timeline

The highest frequency of tweets was registered on Tuesday, December 7 at 2pm, when the Venezuelan adversary Leopoldo López visited the location of the former National Congress in Santiago, invited by Constituents of Vamos por Chile.

Tweets con más rt

The tweets with the highest number of retweets were published by the account @24HorasTVN and by the accounts of the Constituents Teresa Marinovic and Fernando Atria. The tweet published by the account of the TV program 24 Horas is a part of an interview carried out with Leopoldo López in the national channel and included one of his statements: “I don’t know all the details about the internal discussion of the constituent process here in Chile, but I can tell you with a lot of certainty that the Venezuelan Constituent was the beginning of the end”.

In turn, the Constituent Teresa Marinovic shared a link for a YouTube video of the Fundación Nueva Mente containing criticism of the Convention’s Commission for Fundamental Rights due to its “questioning of the right to work”. The video shows a debate in the Commission based on the presentation of a public hearing.

Lastly, the Constituent Fernando Atria replied to the tweet made by the TV program 24 Horas, criticizing Leopoldo López’s statements: “It’s very rude to first say you have no idea about the Chilean constitutional process and then assume to know the future (of Chile, of Latin America)”, he wrote.

Tweet 1:
Leopoldo Lopez at #Canal24Horas: “I don’t know all the details about the internal discussion of the constituent process here in Chile, but I can tell you with a lot of certainty that the Venezuelan Constituent was the beginning of the end”.

Tweet 2:
HELP ME with an RT because sometimes the Convention forgets common sense:
The Convention questions the Right to Work

Tweet 3:
“I don’t know the details about the Chilean constitutional process” // “I have no idea what you’re asking me, but…”

It’s very rude to first say you have no idea about the Chilean constitutional process and then assume to know the future (of Chile, of Latin America).

Retweet:
Leopoldo Lopez at #Canal24Horas: “I don’t know all the details about the internal discussion of the constituent process here in Chile, but I can tell you with a lot of certainty that the Venezuelan Constituent was the beginning of the end”.

Analysis of networks and communities

This week, both the pink and blue communities appeared in different sizes and connected to each other mostly through the account of the CNN journalist who covers the work of the Convention, Josefina de la Fuente (@josefina_delaf).

The most influential accounts in the past days were @24HorasTVN, followed by the accounts of Teresa Marinovic, Marcela Cubillos, CNN Chile, Josefina de la Fuente, Fernando Atria, @pierrecuried, and the Vice-President of the Convention, Jaime Bassa.

Methodological note

The survey was carried out through the Trendsmap application with the following query: (constituyente OR constituyentes OR constitucional OR constitución OR constitucion OR convencion OR convención OR convencionales OR convencional) OR (#convencionconstituyente OR #convenciónconstituyente OR #convencionconstitucional OR #convenciónconstitucional OR #convencion OR #convención) -tribunal

Through this survey, we sought to find Twitter conversations related to the work of the Constitutional Convention and the constituent process between Monday, December 6 at 12am and Friday, December 10 at 8:30am. The word court was removed from the search so as not to include conversations related to the candidate Gabriel Boric’s signature of an appeal sent to the Constitutional Court to prevent the expulsion of foreigners, a situation that was mentioned in the TVN program “Candidate, your time has come”. We collected data on conversations produced by users located in Chile and in Spanish.

* The Digital Democracy Room is a project of FGV DAPP in Brazil in partnership with Animal Político, Bolivia Verifica, Chequeado, Confidencial, Espacio Público, 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 Espacio Público here.