The debate about the five presidential hopefuls ranked the best in polls during the first month of the compaign (August 16 to September 16) prompted 22,572,583 posts on Twitter. In this period, Jair Bolsonaro (PSL) consolidated himself as the candidate that is mentioned the most by both conservative and progressive profiles, which highlights the polarization of the discussions.

Debate about the presidential hopefuls on Twitter
Aug 16 – Sep 16

The peak of publications in the debated happened on September 06, with the repercussion of the attack against the PSL candidate during a campaign act in Juiz de Fora (MG). On that day, the volume of references reached more than 1.4 million in only four hours (from 4 p.m. to 8 p.m.) In addition to comments questioning the veracity of the aggression and supporting messages, there was an increase in themes associated with public security policies, such as discussions about the effectiveness of reassessing the Statute of Disarmament and allowing gun carry for citizens; criticism of violence inducing discourses; and comments about other politicians that were also the target of attacks, such as Marielle Franco.

Bolsonaro was responsible for the second peak of interest in the period, prompted by a question-and-answer session by the Jornal Nacional on August 28. The interaction between journalist Renata Vasconcellos and the presidential hopeful was the main subject of the discussions.