Right-Wing Leaders Dominate Online Narrative After Rio’s Deadliest Police Operation

Overview

• Reports put the death toll at 119 to 121 in the megaoperation across the Alemão and Penha complexes, described as the most lethal of its kind in Brazil.
• Instituto Democracia em Xeque found 872 posts from right-leaning profiles versus 438 from the left and 57 million interactions for conservatives compared with 17 million for progressives across major platforms.
• Bites reported that 40 of the 100 top-performing posts were from the right, 32 from the left or critics of the right, and 28 neutral, with Lula and Governor Cláudio Castro the most mentioned figures and largely criticized.
• Opposition governors coordinated public support for Castro, discussed offering state police for patrols, and planned further meetings, as the federal government held back from a Law and Order Guarantee deployment.
• Online narratives split between conservative claims of a fight against “narcoterrorism” and left-wing denunciations of a “massacre,” while an FGV study logged about 1.92 million posts and over 60 million interactions and noted 113 arrests and more than 90 rifles seized.