The fear campaigns are used in an election to sow the “panic” in society in the face of a hypothetical triumph of a candidate. They are usually part of a digital political strategy to criticize whoever is believed to be able to obtain the most votes and who is first in the polls.
This practice was present in our country’s elections. Through different accounts and pages on social networks, different advertisements began to go viral to criticize different candidates, especially Javier Milei in the face of a supposed triumph of the candidate of Freedom Advancestaking into account that he was the candidate who received the most votes in the PASO.
“Don’t give yourself away” It is a Facebook page that was created just three days after the PASO and that today promotes videos with different controversial statements by Milei and with, for example, these types of texts: “Milei not only wants the economy to explode, he wants us all to explode. #Don’tGiveYouAway.” This account has already spent on digital advertising $19,900,336 in the last 30 days, becoming the profile that allocated the most resources to promote this type of fear campaigns. It also promotes publications comparing the value of education with and without Javier Milei.
“Argentina without weapons” It was created on October 2 of this year and all the content that is promoted is about the danger that the “free carrying of weapons” would generate, ending all the videos with “Thousands of Argentines could lose their lives if Milei keeps his promise.” To advertise 20 types of content like that, they were allocated $19,556,336. “Union for peace” It promotes the same content as the one mentioned above and investments have already been made from that account. $8,775,469.
In addition to criticizing Javier Milei, there are also pages that attack Patricia Bullrich Now Together for Change. That is the case of “Right to the Past”created account created on June 30, 2023 and that advertised 17 ads spending in total $16,803,210.
“Not with Milei” It focuses entirely on content against Javier Milei. This account was created in May of this year and its advertisements refer to a possible sale of organs and to make a contrast between what “the people love” and “Milei hates”, highlighting, for example, the Malvinas Islands. From this page they have already been invested $5,514,259.
Another page that criticizes Together for Change so much like Javier Milei is “Argentinian”, account that was created in 2017 and that focuses solely on promoting videos. The investment that this page has made in the last 30 days, both on Facebook and Instagram, is $3,250,875. Finally, “Argentina Alert” It has a peculiarity: it has invested $2,378,457 so far to advertise content that promotes a website that shows 11 reasons not to vote for the La Libertad Avanza candidate.
In total, if all these mentioned accounts are added, it is $76,178,942 the budget that was invested to carry out fear campaigns in the Meta universe. In fact, “Argentina without weapons” It is the third account that spent the most money on digital advertising on Facebook and Instagram in the last 24 hours ($3,701,542). One more demonstration that social networks, within an electoral campaign, fulfill a fundamental factor. The results will later tell how much effect these types of actions have on society.
