Lula wins Brazil runoff as a WhatsApp group of 10 million backers draws attention
A New Republic column credits "Lula's Army," a volunteer messaging group, with helping turn a close race into a clear win over Flávio Bolsonaro.
Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva won Sunday's presidential runoff in Brazil, pulling clear of a narrow race to defeat far-right candidate Flávio Bolsonaro, according to The New Republic.
The result came as a surprise to many, the magazine reported. Bolsonaro's party appeared to have taken the edge in the first round of voting earlier this month. After the loss, Bolsonaro went to Florida, The New Republic said.
The account comes from a column by Jason Linkins, the magazine's deputy editor, first published in his weekly newsletter, Power Mad. It is an opinion piece, and this story relies on it alone.
Linkins pointed to a WhatsApp group called "Lula's Army," which he said had 10 million members. Citing the BBC, he wrote that lawmaker André Janones ran the group and gave members "missions." These included ready-made messages to share with friends and family, and tasks meant to make Lula more visible on social media, such as pushing campaign videos and hashtags.
According to the BBC report quoted in the column, instructions included "Guys, urgent!," "Don't go to sleep yet," and "No food before the mission!"
The column says the group also worked offline, signing up new voters in members' own neighbourhoods. One member said Janones "helped motivate us, encouraged us to talk to friends and relatives to go vote and ... explained to us how social media worked so the people who were clueless about it understood." Janones also reportedly told members to stop engaging with right-wing posts, because doing so only boosted them in the algorithms.
The column argues the episode matters beyond Brazil. Linkins says Democrats in the United States should take up similar organizing. He points to a New York Times report that New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani's administration briefs a network of social media influencers through Signal group chats. He also cites a Washington Post report that nearly 600 prominent right-wing accounts and outlets have published more than 7,000 statements questioning the integrity of US elections this year.
Much is still unclear. The column gives no vote totals or margin of victory. Citing the BBC, it notes that the role of social media in election results is "notoriously difficult" to measure. Linkins also says Lula's win depended partly on Bolsonaro's own failings.
The column mentions reports accusing Meta of tilting its algorithms in Bolsonaro's favour but does not say who made those claims or give any evidence. It also does not say what Bolsonaro plans to do next.
