Support for the complaint against Bolsonaro and the Supreme Court dominates social media, survey shows.

247 - The trial that indicted Jair Bolsonaro (PL) for attempted coup d'état in the Supreme Federal Court provoked a veritable explosion of engagement on social media. According to a survey by the consulting firm Bites, published by the newspaper... The GlobeThe episode recorded the highest volume of mentions of the former president and the Court in a year, with a predominance of expressions in favor of accepting the complaint filed by the Attorney General's Office (PGR).

Between Tuesday (25) and Wednesday (26), 2,44 million posts were registered that mention Bolsonaro, the ministers of the First Panel of the STF, the coup plot or related topics. On the first day of the trial, mentions reached 1,5 million — a number that surpassed the previous peak, which occurred in February, on the day the PGR presented the formal complaint against the former president. On Wednesday, until 19 pm, another 950 thousand publications were counted.

According to André Eler, technical director of Bites, “the data shows that Bolsonaro still has the ability to attract attention and mobilize supporters. The former president continues to set the agenda for the media and social networks. The left is able to organize itself to contest the debate, but there is no indication that Bolsonarism has been defeated in the digital environment.”

The trial also triggered the biggest spike in Google searches for "Bolsonaro" and "STF" in the last twelve months. Searches for the former president's name more than doubled compared to the week of November 21, 2023, when he was indicted by the Federal Police. The Supreme Court itself saw more searches than in the week of the bomb attack in the Praça dos Três Poderes (Three Powers Square).

Although social media remains polarized, the consultancy's qualitative analysis indicates a digital environment more receptive to the Supreme Court's decision. Among the 50 most shared posts on platform X (formerly Twitter), 34 were favorable to accepting the charges, 14 were critical of the decision, and two remained neutral.

While Bolsonaro supporters attempted to structure their leader's defense digitally from the first day of the trial, the left demonstrated a greater capacity for celebration and mobilization after the Supreme Court's First Panel decision on Wednesday. The former president, however, still demonstrates strength on his own social media. Compared to Lula, Bolsonaro had six Instagram posts with more likes than the most engaging post by the Workers' Party president during his trip to Japan—which reached 102 likes.

Now officially a defendant, Bolsonaro could face up to 43 years in prison if convicted with the application of the maximum penalties foreseen for the five crimes indicated by the Attorney General's Office: criminal organization, attempted violent abolition of the Democratic Rule of Law, coup d'état, aggravated damage through violence and serious threat against the assets of the Union, and deterioration of listed heritage.

Furthermore, the Attorney General's Office considered aggravating factors such as the use of firearms in the crime of criminal organization, which can increase the sentence by up to 50%, and the exercise of command of the group, which can generate an increase of one-sixth to two-thirds of the total sentence. The former president's defense continues to deny the accusations and classifies the indictment as "unfounded."