This week in the Digital Debate, we analyzed the discussion regarding the Constituent Convention and the constituent process no Twitter from Monday, September 13th, until Thursday, September 16th. The conversation on the networks was marked by the discussion about the 2/3 and by the tweet made by the President about the right to freedom of education in the constitutional text.

SUMMARY

212,400 tweets
182,300 retweets (86%)
14,700 replies (7%)

WORDS

The words used the most on the publications on Twitter this week
Were “chile”, “presidente” (president) and “reglamento” (regulations). The word “president” was related to a controversial tweet published by Sebastián Piñera in his account on Tuesday, September 14th. The tweet reads: “Parents have the duty and the preferential right to educate their children. The State must help this mission, but never try to replace them. By not recognizing this right held by parents, a majority in the Convention
is seriously harming families”.

This tweet caused disturbances both inside and outside of the Convenion, because, technically, the parents’ right to educate their children was not denied; it was simply not included in the reference list of minimum rights to be discussed by the Fundamental Rights Commission according to the regulations. The tweet was considered false and irresponsible, with users clarifying that the Convention is discussing the regulations and that the substantive discussions of the constitutional text have not yet started. In addition, his
“lack of competence” to interfere with the work of the Convention was criticized.

The replies given by the counsel were similar. President Elisa Loncón said the comment was not relevant. To clarify the situation, she indicated the stage at which the Convention is at the moment. The vice-president Jaime Bessa replied on Twitter: “Mr. President, please, do not disinform the public. The Convention has not yet started the substantive discussions about the constitutional contents. The discussion about the list of rights will happen in its respective Comission, as indicated by our Regulations”, he published in his account. In turn, the word “regulamento” on the Twitter conversations was related to the vote given by the Convention about the type of quorum established in order to approve the regulation to be discussed.

HASHTAGS

The hashtags used the most this week were #los2terciosserespetan and #losdosterciosserespetan (respect the 2 thirds) and # time100. The hashtag #los2terciosserespetan was also related to the discussion in the Convention about establishing a quorum to approve the regulation. The hashtag was part of a campaign promoted by users Criticizing the voting process and the result.

In turn, the hashtag #time100 started being used on Wednesday, September 15th, after the Time magazine recognized Elisa Loncón as one of the 100 most influential people in 2021

TIMELINE

The highest frequency of tweets per hour was registered on Tuesday, September 14th, at 12:30, which corresponds to the president’s controversial tweet (10:40am) and to the replies that followed it.

TWEETS WITH THE MOST RETWEETS

This week, Daniel Jadue posted one of the most retweet tweets in the analysis. The mayor of Recoleta responded to the tweet commented by Sebastián Piñera about freedom of education, and asked him to let the Convention do its job: “Mr. Piñera, you are responsible for serious human rights violations, and you have no moral stature to talk to Chile about rights”, he said.

Another tweet among the most retweeted came from the official account of the Constituent Convention (@convencioncl), clarifying the fake news tha circulated on the social network about rewards being given to Constituents. The account clarified that there were no such benefits for members of the Convention. Lastly, Daniel Matamala, like Daniel Jadue and many other users, also replied to the tweet made by Sebastián Piñera. Matamala told the president that his approach was incorrect, and that the “The substantive discussions of the constitutional text have not yet started.”

Tweet 1: Piñera, you are responsible for serious human rights violations, and you have no moral stature to talk to Chile about rights. Let that Convention do its job, that is what all of Chile wants!
Shared tweet: Parents have the duty and the preferential right to educate their children.
The State must help this mission, but never try to replace them.
By not recognizing this right held by parents, a majority in the Convention is seriously harming families”.

Tweet 2: As a Constituent Convention, we inform that the comments circulating on social networks regarding rewards given to constituents are completely false. There is NO such benefit.

Tweet 3: It is false that most of the constituents are “not recognizing this right held by parents”.
They are only just starting to define the regulations. The substantive discussions of the constitutional text have not yet started
Shared tweet: Parents have the duty and the preferential right to educate their children.
The State must help this mission, but never try to replace them.
By not recognizing this right held by parents, a majority in the Convention is seriously harming families”.

ANALYSIS OF NETWORKS AND COMMUNITIES

Our data monitoring this week showed a large number of accounts connecting the two communities. The blue community gained strength compared to the previous week, and the pink community was more scattered. The account of Teresa Marinovic reappeared as an influential account in the blue community, and Jaime Bassa occupies a similar space in the pink community.

The most influential accounts this week were Teresa Marinovic, followed bu the vice-president Jaime Bassa, José Antonio Kast, and the constituent Marcela Cubillos. Elisa Loncón appeared in the sixth place this week, after the account @Mister_Wolf_0.

METHODOLOGICAL NOTE

This week’s analysis was carried out through 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) -“unidad constituyente” A través de esa búsqueda buscamos filtrar las conversaciones relacionadas al proceso constituyente, eliminando las publicaciones que contengan las palabras “unidad constituyente”. This was done in order to find publications related to the pact. We collected data on conversations produced by users located in Chile and in Spanish. The survey considered the period between Monday, September 13, and Thursday, September 16, 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.