Hasan Piker Says US Left Must Study Lula's 'Army' on WhatsApp After Brazil Win

Streamer Hasan Piker said the American left should copy the volunteer WhatsApp network that helped Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva come from behind to win reelection. He called it a model for fighting misinformation ahead of the U.S. midterms, which are one week away.

Piker made the argument on Monday's episode of HasanAbi, which he devoted to Lula's runoff victory on Sunday over Flávio Bolsonaro. He told viewers that the network deserved study, and he warned that the right would study it as well.

"It's a fascinating case study for how to combat misinformation in the digital age right before very consequential election and we have to study it we have to apply it here," Piker said.

Lula's Comeback Over Flávio Bolsonaro

Lula won Sunday's runoff over Flávio Bolsonaro, the son of former President Jair Bolsonaro, after finishing behind him in the first round. A clip Piker played on the show described Lula as having been behind by two million votes.

Piker credited the left's mobilization, including large rallies, and said the first-round shock woke voters up. He said Flávio Bolsonaro grew overconfident and began talking about austerity measures. Clips Piker played also pointed to higher turnout. The part he pitched to an American audience was the online organizing.

What Piker Said About the WhatsApp 'Army'

Piker pointed to "that one guy who organized lula's army with him with 10 million people on whatsapp." He meant André Janones, a federal deputy from Minas Gerais in the Rede party, who started the channel on October 5, the day after the first round. Within two days it had almost 2 million followers, Poder360 reported.

The channel, Exército do Lula, passed 10 million followers on Friday, Congresso em Foco reported. Janones used military language and sent followers "missions" to share, comment on and amplify campaign posts, according to Poder360.

Piker said the network reached "the unks and the aunts and the grandmas" and explained AI-altered content to them. He said this was the difference between it and conventional digital campaigning.

"Instead of operating bot farms these guys basically created an environment where real people were almost singularly invested like a hive mind in operating like a bot farm itself but it wasn't a bot farm at all it was real people doing it," he said.

"What can we here in America learn from this," he asked.

Piker Warns Opponents Will Study It Too

Piker said the right would draw its own lessons from Brazil.

"Remember our enemies will be studying this as well," he said. "They are going to be studying where the failures were they are going to do everything in their power to ensure that this defeat does not take place once again."

He did not lay out how the model should be used in the United States, which candidates should use it or who should run it.

Piker also said Meta had banned Lula's account in the first round and that American-backed platforms were engaged in foreign interference. He described misinformation spread by Bolsonaro supporters. He did not cite specific examples or documentation for those claims in the segment, and the Bolsonaro campaign was not heard from.

How Well the Model Travels to the U.S.

One obstacle is the platform. In a 2025 Pew Research Center survey, 32 percent of U.S. adults said they use WhatsApp, up from 23 percent in 2021. That share is well below the shares for YouTube and Facebook.

Democrats go into the final week of the campaign ahead nationally. They lead by 8.5 points in PolitiKool's polling average of the generic congressional ballot, and Trump's approval stands at 37.6 percent in PolitiKool's polling average.

Piker has criticized Democratic consultants before, saying they chase corporate money instead of voters.

What Happens Next

In the United States, any test of Piker's argument would most likely come after the midterms, when campaigns start building for 2028.