Big Data in Brazilian Politics

The study aims to understand the digital environment in Brazil, the behavior of social networks in the main political events of the country and how they will possibly impact the presidential election of 2018. For this, we compare the availability of data in the digital environment of the United States with the availability of information in Brazil. The aim was to verify if Brazilian politicians play a similar role to American politicians like Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton regarding digital communication strategies, where both used big data demographic and behavioral data to outline their communication strategies and public relations. In addition, the research contemplates patterns of Brazilian behaviors on the Internet and how these may be useful in the 2018 election. To do this, we will cover some case studies such as the impeachment of President Dilma Rousseff and how the debate reverberated in the digital environment. Our hypothesis is that the lack of Internet access and lack of connectivity between segments - credit card companies and social networks, for example - hampers predictions such as those made by companies like Cambridge Analytica. For the hypothesis, we take into account the behavioral difference of the Brazilian population with the United States, allowing forms of measurement that are possible only for the Brazilian reality. The preliminary results highlight the very characteristic political groupings in the networks. The former center-left government was heavily criticized by the center, the right and the extreme left. In addition, we can see the growth of far-right political publishers, both in the Brazilian presidential race and in the creation of new news portals. These portals have significant influence on the Brazilian population and possibly will impact the 2018 election.