This week in the Digital Debate, we present the debate about the Constituent Convention and the constituent process on Twitter, from Monday, October 11 to Thursday, October 14. The debate on the networks was marked by the publication of the General Regulations of the Constituent Convention.

Summary

83,200 tweets
68,900 retweets (83%)
6,700 replies (8%)

Words

The most used words on Twitter publications between Monday and Thursday were “chile”, “proceso” (process), “participación” (participation), “trabajo” (work), “indígena” (indigenous), “estado” (state), “semana” (week), and “presidente” (president).

The most commented event on the social network regarding the constituent process and the work of the Convention was the publication of the General Regulations. The regulations were approved preliminarily on September 14, when more than one thousand indications were presented. Afterwards, it was approved on October 7, beginning the discussion about the contents attributed to each of the permanent commissions. Lastly, this week, the General Regulations were published, and discussions can begin on the background discussion and the tasks of
The commissions next Monday, October 18.

This Wednesday, October 13, the president Elisa Loncón published in her account a link for the publication in the Official Journal, together with the following message: “It’s official! Today, the General Regulations of the Constitutional Convention were published.

Together with the regulations for Ethics, Popular Participation and Indigenous Participation. Everything is set and the background work can begin on writing the New Constitution!”.

Hashtags

The most used hashtag during the days analyzed was #estafaconstitucional (constitutional fraud). Users promoted this hashtag to criticize the actions of the Convention, particularly on the day when the General Regulations of the Concention were published in the Official Journal.

Two other hashtags promoted were #elcandidato (the candidate) and #acusacionconstitucional (constitutional accusation). The first hashtag is related to publications commenting on the TV program El Candidato, broadcast in the channel Mega, in which presidential candidates are interviewed. The second hashtag is related to the political trial filed with the Chamber of Deputies against the President of the Republic, Sebastián Piñera, due to his connection with the sale of the mining company Dominga in tax havens. The hashtag #pandorapapers appeared for the second consecutive week and was also related to the controversy involving the president.

Another hashtag used frequently was #laconvencionenterreno (the convention on land), promoted by different Constituents to share the activities of the territorial week of the Covention, which started on Monday and ends on Sunday, October 17.

Timeline

The highest frequency of tweets per hour was registered on Wednesday, October 13 at 4:30pm, the day when the General Regulations of the Constituent Convention were published.

Tweets with the most retweets

This week, the tweets with the most retweets were published by the account of the president and the vice-president of the Constituent Convention, Jaime Bassa. The vice-president of the Convention published a message similar to Elisa Loncón’s, attaching a picture of the first page of the Official Journal: “Today, the General Regulations of the Constitutional Convention were published! A critical step for the process and for its successful development. With the addition of the regulations for Ethics, Popular Participation and Indigenous Participation. Next week, we will start the constituent debates”, he shared.

Another tweet with a large number of retweets was published by the account @ChileUnidoAvanz, which requested drug tests for Constituents, in the context of criticizing Daniel Stingo in a TV program which he shared with Macarena Santelices, a spokesperson for José Antonio Kast.

Tweet 1:
It’s official! Today, the General Regulations of the Constitutional Convention were published. Together with the regulations for Ethics, Popular Participation and Indigenous Participation. Everything is set and the background work can begin on writing the New Constitution!

Tweet 2:
Today, the General Regulations of the Constitutional Convention were published! A critical step for the process and for its successful development. With the addition of the regulations for Ethics, Popular Participation and Indigenous Participation. Next week, we will start the constituent debates.

Tweet 3:
Daniel Stingo, hyperventilating and disrespectfully, did not let Macarena Santelices, spokesperson for José Antonio Kast, speak. We have said ad nauseam that a drug test is urgent for all Constituents and representatives, we will see more surprises

Analysis of networks and communities

There was a lower number of posts this week, which means interactions were also lower. The most influential account was the president Elisa Loncón, followed by the vice-president Jaime Bassa and Daniel Jadue. In fourth place was the account of the Constituent Marcela Cubillos, followed by the accounts of @cincinatochile and @Mister_Wolf_0.

Methodological Note

The analysis was carried out using the Trendsmap tool 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) -acusacion -acusación -excepción -“tribunal constitucional” – inversiones.

Through this analysis, we sought to filter conversations related to the constitutional process, eliminating the words acusación, acusacion, excepción, tribunal constitucional and inversiones in order to remove publications related to the constitutional accusation of the President of the Republic, or related tweets. We collected data from conversations that were produced by users located in Chile and in Spanish. In addition, we filtered the tweets with the highest number of retweets unrelated to the constituent process. The survey considered the period between Monday, October 11 and Thursday, October 14, 2021.

* 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.