An analysis of around 43 thousand retweets posted by followers of the presidential hopefuls in posts by the candidates about public security in the past three months (May 24 to August 22) revealed that three themes directly connected to crime rates were among the main motivators of interactions: “shooting” (21.24%), a reflex of this increasingly frequent event; “homicides” (9.89%), whose trend of growth in its rate per 100 thousand people per year is manifested in the feeling of insecurity and fear, and “gender violence” (8.39%), which mobilizes a growing public.

Issues about the management of security also appear with some relevance. For example, “government plans”, a topic that approaches general issues based on the government plans of the candidates, accounted for 30.24% of the engagement. It is followed by “resource prioritizing” (12.41%) and “corruption” (10.35%).

The main mobilizer of the interactions was Jair Bolsonaro, whose followers represent 47.8% of the engagement, mostly about the following themes: “government plants” — which includes, among other things, proposals for a reform of the Sentence Execution Act and rethinking the disarmament —, “shootings” and “violence against women”. João Amoêdo was the second mobilizer, with approximately 18%, mostly due to his emphasis on the debate about “resource prioritizing”, focusing on cutting expenses, and the criticism of corruption. Guilherme Boulos, the third mobilizer (with 11%), led the mobilization of the left wing in the topics homicide and gender violence.

Candidates that generated most interactions concerning public security

Source: Twitter | Elaborated by: FGV DAPP