Brazil: reported political campaign links on social media 2022, by platform

As of August 2022, Facebook and Instagram were the most used social media platform by political candidates in Brazil ahead of the campaigning for the country's general elections based on the number of reported electoral campaign links. The number of political campaign links connected to the Meta-owned networks represented more than 77 percent of the data reported to the Supreme Electoral Court in Brazil. Networks like Twitter, YouTube, and TikTok trailed with around three thousand to one thousand reported links. It is the first time that such a register regarding the usage of social networks was published by the country's Supreme Electoral Court ahead of the general elections in Brazil.

Campaigning in the streets and the digital world

The importance of social media in Brazilian politics was proven decisive during the last municipal and general elections. As of 2022, more than 78 percent of Brazilians use social media to talk about politics, as another 34 percent of Brazilians used social media as a source for online news consumption. On the other hand, digital advertising represents only three percent of the spending on a political campaign, amounting to around 18.88 million Brazilian reals against the 220.27 million Brazilian reals spent on traditional campaigning during the same period.

Brazil’s digital political realm

The political turmoil ahead of Brazil’s general elections is also reflected on the country’s social media since several users gave up on talking about politics to avoid conflict in digital spaces. Meanwhile, more than 81 percent of the respondents of a March 2022 survey stated that networks should delete fake content, while more than half believed that these platforms and messaging apps should be suspended if they disobeyed rulings of the country’s Supreme Court to fight misinformation.