Radar Pupa

The next democracy is phygital: what Brazil’s runoff teaches

Pixel card do Radar Pupa 45 sobre a próxima democracia: urna eletrônica dourada ao centro, com feixe de luz verde que se abre numa rede de celulares, balões de conversa e publicações, em fundo roxo
27
Oct

One day after Brazil’s presidential runoff, issue 45 of Radar Pupa draws on a book by Silvio Meira and Rosário Pompéia to think about the next democracy, where voting is physical and mobilization is increasingly digital.

By José Brito, founder of Pupa Educação Digital, teacher at the AI and Digital Education Lab of Colégio MOPI and director of JEDUCA, the Brazilian Association of Education Journalists.

The next democracy is already visible in the picture of Brazil’s 2026 election. Around 128 million voters went to the polls at more than 95,000 voting locations. At the same time, the final stretch of the campaign ran through videos, links and messaging channels with millions of followers.

According to the Superior Electoral Court (TSE), Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (Workers’ Party, PT) was re-elected with 64.2 million votes, 51.79% of valid votes, against 59.8 million for Flávio Bolsonaro (Liberal Party, PL), with 48.21%. On WhatsApp, the channel “Exército do Lula” (Lula’s Army), created by federal congressman André Janones, gathered 10.8 million followers in just over three weeks. The issue calls this an outsourcing of the cause and compares it with the “cockroach party”, a Gen Z movement in India that moved from social media to the streets.

Radar Pupa 45 pixel card on the next democracy: a golden electronic voting machine at the center, with a green beam opening into a network of phones, chat bubbles and posts, on a purple background
Pixel card of Radar Pupa issue 45

The next democracy and the phygital world

“What is happening to democracy? The question echoes in a world of worn-out words and broken compasses. We feel we are living through a historic turning point, but we struggle to name the transition.”

Silvio Meira and Rosário Pompéia, in A próxima democracia (The Next Democracy). Free translation from Portuguese. The authors use the word phygital for a world in which the physical and the digital are no longer separate places.

Also in issue 45

  • Lula re-elected with 51.79%, and a WhatsApp channel that points to a new digital communication strategy
  • ANPD, Brazil’s data protection authority, makes addictive design a priority for 2027 and opens a consultation on enforcing the ECA Digital, Brazil’s law on children’s rights online, with fines of up to R$50 million per violation
  • Ipsos-Ipec survey: Gen Z is the generation least afraid of being replaced by AI
  • Platform regulation is back on the table after the election
  • PUPA EDU opens the second class of its course IA no Dia a Dia (AI in Everyday Life), with sessions on November 9, 11, 16 and 18, in Portuguese

Reading tip

A próxima democracia: 32 teses para o futuro da política no mundo figital (The Next Democracy: 32 Theses for the Future of Politics in the Phygital World), by Silvio Meira and Rosário Pompéia (Amarilys, 2025), starts from 16 signs of crisis and 16 principles to reach 32 theses on politics at a time when the public square and the phone are part of the same conversation. Available in Portuguese.

Read the full issue 45 in its original version (in Portuguese)

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Prepared with support from Claude Cowork.