The senator (PL-RJ) changed the game — at least on social media. Since being announced as a pre-candidate for the Presidency of the Republic, Flávio has started to grow more on the internet than his direct competitor, the president () who, in recent speeches, has shown that he has a certain resistance to the digital world. Lula has repeatedly said he does not have a cell phone and complains about using the device, a habit shared by the majority of the Brazilian population.
Experts say that criticism of digital dependence could alienate the electorate. In parallel, Flávio’s comeback in the online environment reflects the moment in which polls indicate a technical tie between Bolsonaro’s son 01 and the president in a possible second round.
At the request of Sheet The data consultancy Bites carried out a survey to compare, week by week, who had the greatest traction on the networks. The period analyzed goes from 2022 to 2026 and includes, in addition to Flávio and Lula, the former president, who dominated the networks during his term.
“Traction”, in marketing ABC, means the consistent growth of a profile. The metric can thus measure the ability to mobilize the internet through interactions — likes, comments and shares. In 2022, Bolsonaro had a large advantage over the others.
Four years earlier, his election was due, among other factors, to the digital structure focused on the campaign, which did not exempt the electorate from fake news. “The right bet first on the networks, while the left refused to believe that it would be something relevant”, says André Eler, technical director at Bites. At the end of 2022, there was a change for a brief period.
Lula’s victory at the polls generated momentary enthusiasm on the networks, so that the PT member beat Bolsonaro by six weeks. The former president’s primacy would soon be recovered and only ended in August 2025, when he began serving house arrest, remaining incommunicado.
Months later, convicted of a coup d’état, he went into the closed regime. At that time, Eler recalls, Lula started to have a marketing strategy more suited to the internet, with the work of the minister of Secom (Secretariat of Social Communication), .
Last year, they managed to beat both opponents for 15 weeks. But Flávio, who had a more modest expression on the networks, began to rise by becoming a spokesperson for Bolsonarism. The trend came to fruition when Bolsonaro announced, in December, his eldest son as a candidate. Corollary: Flávio won 7 weeks this year, Lula, 1 —Bolsonaro was already incommunicado.
In terms of followers, Lula is still ahead, but Flávio is growing quickly. From December until now, it added 3.4 million people, compared to 378 thousand accounts incorporated into the president’s networks. “Flávio’s percentages are already on par with Bolsonaro’s at his peak, speaking on behalf of his family and posting a lot”, says Eler.
The senator’s allies credit the digital rise to people’s interest in getting to know the son Bolsonaro chose to be his political heir, and not to a change in language. In the allies’ opinion, it is important to now show that Flávio is a statesman and can represent the country.
It is no coincidence that his profiles follow, in videos and photos, his trips abroad during the pre-election period. Last week, one of the videos recorded Flávio speaking in Spanish with the president of , , at the inauguration of the new head of state of , . In the long term, the objective of these allies is to build a moderate profile for the pre-candidate.
Lula’s advantage (38%) over Flávio (32%) is six points in the first round. In a possible second round, the two appear technically tied: the senator has 43% compared to 46% for the PT member.
Bolsonaro’s son’s growth on the networks contrasts with the tone used by Lula, in repeated speeches, to address digital dependence, the compulsive use of technological devices. During the inauguration of a medical center in Rio de Janeiro, the president suggested that the public “cuddle” their husband or wife when they wake up, instead of checking their phone for updates early in the morning.
In June, Lula went to the rapper’s Mano a Mano podcast and stated that people can no longer put down their cell phones. Therefore, he said, the notion of community life was replaced by individualistic behavior. For digital marketing specialist, Mariana Bonjour, Lula’s speech only alienates the electorate. “The president is distant from ordinary citizens, and another candidate occupies this space”, he states.
Although he recognizes the efforts made by Secom’s management, Bonjour analyzes Lula’s networks as still reduced to a mirror of what is conveyed by the press, without the constitution of a specific language.
“There is no money or team that can replace the candidate’s presence on the network, because authenticity cannot be outsourced”, says Bonjour. “The format that the internet prioritizes is entertainment.”
The president’s posts are highly produced, without the naturalness required by new media. This is what can be concluded from the video from February 8, in which he is in Bahia to promote the Agora Tem Especialistas program. Lula follows an online telehealth consultation and interacts with the doctors providing the care. The explanatory tone gives the feeling that everything had been rehearsed.
With Flávio it’s different. He often films himself, not outsourcing the task to other people. This is what can be seen in a video published on Friday (13), in which he mobilizes activists, asking for prayers from his father, admitted to the ICU with bronchopneumonia.
In his third term, Lula criticized big tech and sent bills to Congress to regulate social networks in Brazil. During his trip to India a month ago, he also advocated regulating .
There seems to be an ideological component at the base of Lula’s disagreement with the online world. “Big techs are large foreign companies and linked to the right, while the left has a tradition of doing politics based on mass management, on hand-to-hand contact”, says Paulo Loiola, political strategist, adding that Lula’s age, 80, makes adaptation difficult — Flávio is 44.
The progressive zeitgeist tends to view technological advancement as a danger. Byung Chul-Han, a South Korean philosopher, was successful in this ideological segment when he created the word “infocracy” to define the digitalization processes that, according to him, undermine democracy.
In the book “Infocracy: Digitization and Crisis of Democracy”, Han writes that social relations have come to be governed by the exploitation of data. “The dichotomy of reality versus virtuality no longer exists, they are complementary environments,” says Loiola. “I’m not going to say that shaking hands doesn’t help, but we can’t be in two places at the same time. The internet reaches a lot more people.”
Natália Santos, from São Paulo, collaborated
