Who is André Janones? The man behind Lula’s Army WhatsApp channel and how he turned it into an election tool in Brazil

On Sunday, Brazil’s incumbent Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva won the presidential runoff election, making him the President of the South American country for the fourth time. The leftist leader finished second in the first round of presidential elections on October 4, with 45.16% of the vote, while Flávio Bolsonaro was the clear winner, with 47.03% of voters choosing him.

But just over 20 days later, the 80-year-old flipped the script and retained his post against all odds. Lula’s win was decisive, with more than 64 million votes compared to just under 60 million for Bolsonaro, a margin of nearly 4%.

How digital outreach helped Lula

According to the Associated Press, analysts credit this turnaround to the additional 14.1 million voters who turned out for the second-round election, including those who had voted for other candidates in the first round.

Many also pointed out how one man, lawmaker André Janones, turned the tables for Lula. Janones is said to be the brain behind Lula’s digital campaign, which mounted a fierce and persistent social media operation that mobilised many previously uncommitted voters.

Who is André Janones

Janones’ key tool was a WhatsApp channel called “Lula’s Army,” which gathered almost 11 million people and mobilised them to campaign for the incumbent via social media.

Janones, who serves as a Federal Deputy for the state of Minas Gerais, is widely recognised as the digital “General” behind the massive social media and mobilisation campaigns for Lula.

According to BBC Brazil, his round-the-clock digital mobil,i sation, which used viral videos, hashtags, and a 24-hour livestream on the eve of the runoff, helped counter Bolsonaro’s strong digital presence.

André Janones and Lula’s Army

The campaign clicked and on October 20, Lula reached 200 million interactions on social media since Oct. 5, while Bolsonaro had 54 million, according to data from the Projeto Brief agency in a study conducted for the local newspaper Estadao.

According to data from analytics company Bites, between the campaign’s launch on August 16 and up to the first round, Lula and Bolsonaro had more or less the same number of interactions. But since the beginning of the second round, the incumbent’s profiles received around 111 million interactions against Bolsonaro’s 31 million.

Janones “basically embraced the right’s style of aggressive politics, very intense, constant messaging,” Oliver Stuenkel, a professor of International Relations at Fundação Getulio Vargas in São Paulo, told AP.

“The defeat in the first round jolted the Lula campaign into action. The strategy during the first round was lackluster and saw a lot of infighting,” Stuenkel said.