Downturn in Bolsonaro’s Assessment on Social Media

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – The controversial statements made by President Jair Bolsonaro against journalists, politicians, and governmental institutions in the last week of July have coincided with a downturn in the Planalto’s assessment on social media, according to startup Arquimedes’ monitoring.

The rate recorded a similar decline in May when the government was surrounded by criticism and questioning over the weapons decree.

The Arquimedes Sentiment Index (ISA) measures the behavior of demonstrations from posts on Twitter and Facebook about the government on a daily basis, ranging from 0 to 100, where 0 is negative, and 100 is positive.

The survey points to a positive start for July with 46 points. During this period, the Planalto’s outlook was driven by the pro-government demonstration on June 30th and followed the processing and approval of the Social Welfare reform in the first round in the Chamber of Deputies.

From the second half on, however, the variation dropped and reached 35 points — the lowest rate recorded since the president’s inauguration. On July 19th, during a breakfast meeting with foreign journalists, the president said that hunger in Brazil was “a big lie”.

At the same time, he made false allegations against journalist Miriam Leitão, questioned deforestation data from the National Institute for Space Research (INPE) and called Northeastern governors “paraíba” (“hick” or “rube”), a derogatory term used in Rio de Janeiro.

The string of controversies and their repercussions over the following days led the ISA to fluctuate between 35 and 38 points. The drop also coincided with Bolsonaro’s statement on July 25th against journalist Glenn Greenwald, accused by the president of being a “rascal” who “might go to jail” in Brazil.

Despite the drop in the second half of July, there was a slight positive upturn as of the 29th. The date coincides with the attacks launched by Bolsonaro against OAB President Felipe Santa Cruz. That day, Bolsonaro falsely claimed that a terrorist group had killed Santa Cruz’s father.

A similar collapse had occurred in the first two weeks in May when on the 7th, the Planalto issued a decree to ease gun control — questioned by Congress and the Federal Supreme Court.