FGV DAPP collected references made on Twitter to the five candidates with the highest voting intentions in the opinion polls by the profiles of each candidate and by influencers of the support bases, from August 16 to September 16. Regarding the PT campaign, the analysis takes into account the two periods of time when Lula and Haddad represented the party in their presidential candidacy – that is, with Lula’s profile as an influencer of Haddad’s support base starting from September 11. Out of the total of 3,302 tweets with textual attributes made by the accounts analyzed – that is, tweets that were not simply sharing links, videos or images, but had textual elements –, there were mentions to one or more opponents in 11.2% (372).

The differences of opinion between candidates over the period of time on Twitter became very latent: Alckmin made the most attacks against adversaries, focusing on the PT candidates and on Bolsonaro, but the PSL candidate is the one receiving the most support from a network of supporters to criticize Lula/Haddad and also Marina Silva and Ciro Gomes. Bolsonaro and his sons Eduardo, Carlos and Flávio made 148 references to rivals.

In turn, the Lula/Haddad pair, especially the former president, received the most comments from the others: there were 120 mentions, especially in tweets by Alckmin (30 mentions) or by the Bolsonaro family (53 mentions).