Processo eleitoral, democracia e direito à informação: estudo sobre o Twitter nas eleições brasileiras de 2018

Abstract

This research has as its object of study the behavior of Jair Bolsonaro against his main opponent, Fernando Haddad, in Twitter, during the period from August 16, 2018, when formally started the electoral campaign, until he was elected president on the 1st of January 2019. The choice of this social network was made for two reasons: first because it is an indexable platform that allows research and second because it is the "official" tool of several government officials to increase their diplomatic relations and communicate with the population of their country. In this context, from a methodological point of view, it was decided to divide the data collected on Twitter into two categories: in the first phase of the research, an analysis of the general aspects of the Twitter platform was carried out, comparing the volume of tweets published, according to the days of the week and the month, in addition to the type of platform used for these posts, the response in total numbers through retweets and favorites, as well as the efficiency of each publication of both, candidate Jair Bolsonaro (PSL) and candidate Fernando Haddad (PT) with the aim of understanding their behavior on social networks; in the second phase of the research, Twitter contents were separated based on (i) tweets about corruption; (ii) security tweets; (iii) tweets about education; (iv) tweets about Civil Rights. Having said that, this study analyzed the behavior of candidates on the social network during the 2018 elections, in order to answer the following questions: to what extent did the use of social networks contribute to the democratic process and human rights in presidential elections? How to guarantee, in an electoral process led by social networks, respect for the right to information as a fundamental human right? What legal/political mechanisms must be observed to inhibit the authors of tweets and fake news contents in the 2018 elections? For theoretical foundation, were used authors such as Bobbio (1998, 2003, 2006a); Bonavides (2000); Casara (2018); Castells (2009); Comparato (2017); Empoli (2019); Everett (2017); Ferrajoli (2016); Foucault (2013); Gontijo (2004); Klein (2008); Levi (1999); Tiburi (2018); Tosi (2020); Paiva (2008); Rawls (1997); Wolton (2012); Santos (2017); among others. For the legal basis, the Brazilian Constitution of 1988 was used; the International Human Rights Treaties; the Universal Declaration of Human Rights; and the 1993 Vienna Declaration. The work was divided into three chapters: In the first chapter we seek a relationship between democracy, elections and the right to information; in the second, aspects of the electoral dispute were analyzed, making a timeline of the events; and finally, we analyzed the Twitter of candidates who reached the second round of the dispute in order to understand the different communication strategies adopted during the campaign period.