Bites report indicates that PL-RJ senator had around 76% more interactions than the president from January to February; Michelle Bolsonaro has a higher average engagement per post than Janja and Lula combined
The Bolsonaro family recorded more engagement on social media than the president’s political core (PT) in the first 2 months of 2026. The data comes from a survey by , a data analysis company, at the request of the Poder360, based on publications on X, Instagram and Facebook.
According to, technical director of Bites, “the traction of the names analyzed shows that the Bolsonaro family has a greater capacity for engagement on networks than those closest to Lula”.
From January to February, the senator (PL-RJ) easily led the total volume of interactions. There were 49,696,605, equivalent to 36.2% of the total analyzed. Lula appears in 2nd place, with 28,224,541 interactions (20.82%).
Next comes the former councilor (PL), with 20,212,052 interactions (14.58%), and the former federal deputy (PL-SP), with 17,518,120 (13.11%). The former first lady recorded 5,689,663 interactions (4.17%).
Among the names of Lula’s political core, the highest volumes were those of the Minister of Institutional Relations, with 5,330,454 interactions (3.66%), and the federal deputy (Psol-SP), with 5,110,755 (3.58%).
The First Lady had 2,422,186 interactions (1.78%) and the Vice President, (PSB), recorded 1,182,289 interactions (0.83%).
Other members of the government appear with smaller numbers, such as the Minister of Finance, (PT), with 1,040,780 interactions, and the Minister of the Civil House, (PT), with 535,377.
The former president (PL) did not record interactions during the period because he is prevented from posting on social media due to his arrest.
According to Eler, “in the traction metric — which considers interactions in all analyzed networks — the names linked to Lula appear below the Bolsonaro family”.
Flávio had around 76% more interactions than Lula in the period analyzed.
In total, the Bolsonaro clan had 93.6 million interactions between January and February, equivalent to 113.5% more than Lula’s political nucleus, which recorded 43.8 million.
In terms of number of followers, however, the group linked to the president has the advantage: it has 56.9 million, compared to 48.5 million for the Bolsonaro clan.
AVERAGE PER PUBLICATION
When the criterion is the average number of interactions per publication, Michelle Bolsonaro leads the ranking. According to Bites, its posts registered an average of 316,092 interactions in the period analyzed.
Next comes Janja, with an average of around 78 thousand interactions per post.
Then come Flávio Bolsonaro (68,077), Lula (42,764), Carlos Bolsonaro (24,440), Eduardo Bolsonaro (22,090) and Guilherme Boulos, with an average of 21,655 interactions per publication.
According to Eler, Michelle and Janja’s performance is linked to the lower volume of publications. “Michelle and Janja, however, who publish less, are the figures with the most interactions per post”, he stated.
WEEKLY ENGAGEMENT
Throughout the period analyzed, Flávio led weekly engagement most of the time.
The only exception was in the last week of February, when Lula registered superior performance after publishing
Reproduction/Instagram @lulaoficial – 23.feb.2026
Of the 5 posts with the most interactions in the period, 4 were by Flávio Bolsonaro and 1 by Lula.
METHODOLOGY
The survey was carried out by Bites, a data analysis company, based on publications made on the social networks X, Instagram and Facebook.
The period analyzed goes from January 4th to February 28th, 2026.
The study considers the total volume of interactions in publications, including likes, comments, shares and other forms of engagement recorded on the platforms.
The analysis also uses the indicator of tractionwhich aggregates the interactions obtained by profiles on the different social networks analyzed.
This report was produced by Journalism intern Ingrid Mognon under the supervision of the Deputy Editorial Secretary, Sabrina Freire.
