By Francisco Brito Cruz, Heloisa Massaro and Ester Borges

Did you receive any electoral spam in 2018? In an exploratory study, we collected messages received by voters from unknown numbers. Beyond the regulatory outlines of this practice, we analyzed the diversity of the tactics and content of these messages.

In the context of the 2018 Brazilian elections, WhatsApp had one of the leading roles in the discussions involving the impacts for the internet for the political communication and digital marketing strategies used by campaigns. The political spamming within the platform became the center of studies.

Before the repercussion of the Jair Bolsonaro mass messaging case and of the questions that were raised about the usages and impacts of WhatsApp during the electoral period, we articulated an exploratory study to shed light on the practices of political communication in this platform. From a digital inquiry, we collected 78 political spams received by voters via WhatsApp and SMS. The analysis of the material we received showed a great diversity among the messages. From images that reproduced traditional leaflets to chain messages and memes reflecting the intense political polarization we lived through in the electoral period, the content we collected were varied in format and discourses being spread, in addition to presenting a diversity of parties and candidates that appear connected to these materials. A closer look to this heterogeneity displays signs that sending messages with electoral content could have been both an institutional strategy from the campaigns themselves, as well as an organic and decentralized practice from supporters and online activists, feeding the hypothesis that political campaigns are organized in a propaganda network structure.

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