Parliamentarians celebrate the approval of commission report holding signs that read ”Democracy always!” and ”No amnesty to coup-plotters” Photo: Lula Marques/ Agência Brasil/Fair use On January 8, 2023, a week after newly elected Luiz Inácio “Lula” da Silva walked on the Planalto presidential palace ramp and was inaugurated as president for a third term, Brazilians watched in shock as a mob attacked and broke into federal power buildings, including the Supreme Court and the National Congress, in Brasília, contesting the elections result. Almost ten months after the events, this October 18, a group of parliamentarians approved a report naming former president Jair Bolsonaro and 60 other people as accountable for the events that led to the attacks in what they call a ”wilful coup attempt.” The 1.333-page report is a product of almost five months of hearings in an investigation commission compiled by members of the federal Senate and the Lower Chamber. It was approved with 20 votes in favor and 11 against. Besides Bolsonaro, the report names five former ministers and eight Armed Forces generals for attempting a coup with the invasion of the three powers headquarters. As reported by Agência Brasil, the document asks for Bolsonaro to be indicted for criminal association, attempting violent abolition of the democratic state and to depose a democratically elected government. Senator Eliziane Gama, the rapporteur, also named the far-right former president as the ”intellectual author” of the events, saying in ”possible partial conclusions”: A sua presença nas rede sociais é feita a partir das palavras de baixo calão e do deboche, articulando o ódio, a ignorância e a mediocridade, de modo a reverberar nos sentimentos mais baixos de uma população assolada pela crise econômica e social. Na eleição, essa estratégia digital aprofundou seu alcance e aprimorou seu método, tendo ele e toda sua família uma audiência robusta em diversos veículos, como demonstrou Ana Júlia de Paiva Gennari em sua pesquisa. Esse modus operandi foi denominado Gabinete do Ódio, por meio da qual uma rede estruturada propagou desinformação, ódio, ataque às urnas, à esquerda (ou o que identificavam com este espectro ideológico, mas nem sempre condizente com os manuais de ciência política) e às instituições democráticas. His social media presence is marked with swearwords and debauchery, articulating hate, ignorance and mediocrity, in a way that reverberates with the lowest feelings of a people devastated by economical and social crisis. In the elections, this digital strategy deepened its reach and enhanced its method, having him and his entire family a robust audience in different medias, as demonstrated by Ana Júlia de Paiva Gennari's research. This modus operandi was named Hate Cabinet, through which a structured network disseminated misinformation, hate, attacks to the ballots, to the left (or what they identified as being from such ideology, but not always accordingly to political science manuals) and to democratic institutions. Experts heard by the newspaper The Guardian said they are doubtful the report “will have immediate legal consequences for the former president and his allies” and is ”politically symbolic rather than crucial to any future prosecution.” Charges and further actions depend now on the attorney general's analysis. When the attacks occurred, Bolsonaro was in the United States, where he travelled before Lula's inauguration to avoid being present at the ceremony. Lula was visiting places affected by floods and heavy rains in the state of São Paulo, only returning to Brasília later that day. Bolsonaristas politicians, as the former presidents’ supporters are known, were the ones who insisted on the installment of the commission as a strategy to pinpoint the responsibility for a failure to avoid the attacks on the current government, which seemingly backfired. The report traces a timeline of how speeches and a digital ecosystem helped to set up an environment that led to the radicalization of part of the population, ending up in the attacks on January 8. It approaches the democracy crisis, explains the threats and the rhetoric adopted by bolsonaristas, the set up of digital militias and robots, the role of Big Tech companies, how security forces were co-opted and politicized in the period, the attacks made to the electoral system that led to people to resist accepting the results of the election, camping in protest for months and their radicalization. In June 2023, a ruling of the Superior Electoral Court (TSE) ruled Bolsonaro ineligible for eight years, meaning he can't run for any positions in this period.