With over half of the country on social media and campaigns using these networks furiously in search of votes, this is likely to be the first Brazilian presidential election in which the internet has been more influential than television and radio advertising.
In its latest opinion poll ahead of Sunday’s first-round vote, statistics institute Datafolha included questions which asked members of the public about their internet and social media habits. The results were overwhelming, yet hardly surprising, showing just how ubiquitous some social platforms have become in Brazil, and how influential they will be in this election.
An impressive 68 percent of the electorate has a social media account, and an equally huge 66 percent uses WhatsApp Messenger.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Of the election frontrunners, far-right candidate Jair Bolsonaro is well ahead of the competition in terms of quantity of supporters who use social media. 81 percent of Mr. Bolsonaro’s supporters have an account on social media, compared to 72 percent for Ciro Gomes, and only 59 percent for Workers’ Party candidate, second-placed Fernando Haddad.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Considering the full array of candidates, libertarian João Amoedo leads the way, with an incredible 96 percent of his electorate using social media. On the opposite end of the scale, Brazilian Social Democracy Party candidate Geraldo Alckmin has only 53 percent of his support using said networks. This data is particularly significant, as Mr. Alckmin has the lion’s share of airtime for television and radio advertisements, yet is unable to push his voting intentions into double digits.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">The poll also measured how much the electorate actually uses these social media for consuming news related to the election, as many of these platforms are first and foremost communication-based. Just under half of the electorate (48 percent) have a habit of watching videos about politics on the internet, with most of these people using Facebook and WhatsApp to do so.</span></p>
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<p><img class="alignnone size-large wp-image-9380" src="https://brazilian.report/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/export-FG6bs-1024x560.png" alt="Poll: Bolsonaro voters most active on social media" width="1024" height="560" srcset="https://brazilian.report/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/export-FG6bs-1024x560.png 1024w, https://brazilian.report/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/export-FG6bs-300x164.png 300w, https://brazilian.report/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/export-FG6bs-768x420.png 768w, https://brazilian.report/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/export-FG6bs-610x333.png 610w, https://brazilian.report/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/export-FG6bs.png 1200w" sizes="(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /></p>
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<p><img class="alignnone size-large wp-image-9379" src="https://brazilian.report/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/export-YI1Pl-1024x642.png" alt="Poll: Bolsonaro voters most active on social media" width="1024" height="642" srcset="https://brazilian.report/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/export-YI1Pl-1024x642.png 1024w, https://brazilian.report/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/export-YI1Pl-300x188.png 300w, https://brazilian.report/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/export-YI1Pl-768x481.png 768w, https://brazilian.report/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/export-YI1Pl-610x382.png 610w, https://brazilian.report/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/export-YI1Pl.png 1200w" sizes="(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /><span style="font-weight: 400;">
