Tax justice

1. 1

   2.1 million votes. Between July and October 2025, a Popular Plebiscite run by movements and unions asked about the income-tax exemption and taxing the super-rich.

2. 2

   4.4 million mentions in 11 days. After the government lost on the IOF tax, the PT, its allies and creators flooded social media with AI videos and the “taxação BBB” slogan.

3. 3

   About 270 creators. On 2 July, the PT brought influencers together, asked them to make their own content and offered legal advice against libel and slander.

4. 4

   493 votes for, none against. On 1 October, hours after 1.5 million plebiscite votes were handed over, the Chamber of Deputies passed the exemption.

5. 5

   Law 15,270/2025. The Senate passed it unanimously on 5 November, Lula signed it on 26 November and the exemption has applied since January 2026.

Copy summary

If you're new to this, start with the fundamentals, from the vote goal to what the research says. Read the fundamentals

In June 2025, Lula's government lost the fight in Congress over raising the IOF tax and was down in the polls. Within days, three different fronts began talking about tax justice: the government, through Lula's speeches and its communications office; the PT and allied parties, with videos and a network of creators; and the movements, with a popular plebiscite they had been preparing since March. On 1 October the Chamber passed the income-tax exemption up to R$5,000 without a single vote against; the Senate did the same in November.

2.1M

votes in the Popular Plebiscite (2,118,419), on paper and online, from 1 July to 12 October 2025campaign figure Source

493

votes for and none against in the Chamber on 1 October 2025; unanimous approval in the Senate on 5 Novemberofficial Source

4.4M

mentions of the clash between government and Congress from 24 June to 4 July, 61% of them criticising Congressstudy Source

63%

say the government should raise taxes on the richest to cut them for the poorest (Quaest, July 2025)study Source

From the IOF to the law

1. Mar 2025The government sends Congress bill PL 1,087/2025: an exemption up to R$5,000 and a minimum tax on people earning over R$600,000 a year. Movements start preparing the plebiscite, with four months of talks to settle the questions.
2. Jun 2025Assemblies and training in the states; in Rio Grande do Sul, in-person training at the UFRGS university on 28 June. On 20 June, the Brasil Sátira do Poder account posts what appears to be the first AI-made “Hugo Nem Se Importa”.
3. 25 JunThe Chamber overturns the IOF decree by 383 votes to 98. The next day, 26 June, the PT releases the first “taxação BBB” video, made with AI, with workers carrying sacks of tax.
4. 1 JulVote collection for the plebiscite begins, with fixed and mobile ballot boxes and online voting.
5. 2 JulThe PT brings about 270 creators together online, with support from the presidential palace. At an event in Salvador, Lula holds up the “taxação BBB” poster and posts it with the line “More tax justice and less inequality”.
6. 4 JulQuaest counts 4.4 million mentions from 24 June to 4 July, 61% criticising Congress. Supreme Court justice Alexandre de Moraes suspends both the decree and its overturning.
7. 10 JulRally at MASP in São Paulo, called by Boulos and organised by the Brasil Popular and Povo Sem Medo fronts, the MTST, union federations and the São Paulo city PT. The Quaest poll of 10 to 14 July shows government approval rising from 40% to 43%.
8. 1 OctIn the morning, the plebiscite hands 1.5 million votes to Hugo Motta, then to Lula. The same day, the Chamber passes the bill with 493 votes in favour; the rapporteur is Arthur Lira.
9. 12 Oct to 5 NovThe plebiscite closes with 2,118,419 votes. On 5 November, the Senate passes the text unanimously by voice vote; the rapporteur is Renan Calheiros.
10. 26 NovLula signs Law 15,270/2025, published in the Official Gazette on 27 November. The exemption has applied since January 2026.

Three layers

The three layers talked about the same issue but had different owners, and it pays not to mix up who did what.

• The governmentLula, finance minister Fernando Haddad and Sidônio Palmeira's communications office (Secom) swapped the “União e Reconstrução” (Unity and Reconstruction) slogan for tax justice, took the issue to official accounts and went to the Supreme Court against the IOF reversal; the presidential palace backed the PT's meeting with creators.
• The party and its alliesThe PT's communications office and marketer Otávio Antunes made “taxação BBB”, with two videos a week; deputies from the governing coalition posted more than a thousand times; Boulos and PSOL took to the street against the “centrão inimigo do povo” (centrão, enemy of the people).
• The movements and the creatorsThe Brasil Popular and Povo Sem Medo fronts, the CUT, the MST landless workers' movement, the Levante youth movement, churches and seven parties ran the plebiscite with their own ballot boxes. Accounts with no declared link to the PT, such as Brasil Sátira do Poder and Mídia Ninja, made satire and called people out on their own.

What was specific to Brazil in 2025 and may be missing elsewhere.

Platforms

Paper ballot boxes and street stalls

The heart of the plebiscite. More than 10,000 ballot boxes registered by 22 July, fixed ones at workplaces and community spaces and mobile ones at bus terminals, churches and shopping streets.

Online voting site

Anyone who didn't pass a ballot box could vote on the plebiscite's website. The two channels added up to 2,118,419 votes in 103 days.

TikTok and Instagram

Where the short videos ran: the PT's AI video of workers hauling sacks of tax, the “Hugo Nem Se Importa” satire and the PT's “Boteco do Brasa” (Brasa's Bar), which passed 2 million views on Instagram.

X (Twitter)

One of the networks where the governing coalition's deputies posted on the issue and where the #InimigosDoPovo (enemies of the people) hashtag ran, with over 300,000 mentions from 25 June, according to Quaest.

WhatsApp

In the vote collection, at least one union (Sind-REDE/BH) asked for a photo of the voter list and the weekly count to be sent to a coordinators' mobile number. In political conversation, Palver did not see the debate reach everyday groups in early July.

Street rallies and assemblies

Online state assemblies, in-person training and the 10 July rally at MASP. The symbolic handovers of votes in Brasília made the news on voting days.

Local conditions

• The cause was already popular before the push: in April 2025, Datafolha found 70% support for the exemption up to R$5,000 and 76% for taxing high incomes.
• The government had sent the bill (PL 1,087/2025) in March, and the pace was set by a Congress with a centre-right majority.
• The trigger was the government's defeat on the IOF, a financial transactions tax: on 25 June 2025 the Chamber overturned the decree by 383 votes to 98, with votes from deputies of the PDT and PSB, parties that held ministries.
• Until then the right dominated social media: according to Altamiro Borges of the Barão de Itararé centre, from January to May right-wing politicians had 1.4 billion interactions against 417 million for the left.
• Betting companies were in the news: in May 2025, the CPI das Bets (a parliamentary inquiry into online betting) heard influencers who had advertised betting sites.
• Lula's approval was low (40% in the May Quaest poll) and the 2026 election was already in sight: the PT itself spoke of “pre-campaign mode”.
• AI video generators such as Google's Veo 3 already made it possible to produce satire at scale without a studio or actors.
• The Brazilian left had experience with popular plebiscites: the method has been used for more than 25 years and draws on networks of unions, movements and churches.

A cause that was already popular, with a round number (R$5,000), became both a street conversation and a joke online, and reached Brasília on the day of each vote.

Three fronts

A question that opens a conversation

The plebiscite didn't just ask for a signature: it asked a question, and the question was the excuse to talk to people passing the school gate, the supermarket or the metro. At the paper ballot boxes, each vote left a name, phone number and signature on a list.

Humour that names privilege

Short videos, many made with AI, turned a technical debate into characters: the worker with a sack of tax, the “Boteco do Brasa”, “Hugo Nem Se Importa”. Independent creators produced on their own.

Pressure with a date on it

The coordinators closed a partial count for the day of the Chamber vote and handed the votes in person to Hugo Motta in the morning and to Lula in the afternoon, before the vote. The Senate was on the handover schedule too.

The campaign cycle

The plebiscite ran in stages (preparation from March to June, collection from 1 July, handovers in October and November); the online push ran week by week, tied to the news.

1. Agree the cause Four months of talks between fronts, union federations, parties and churches to settle on two questions: a working week without 6x1, and tax justice.
2. Train National and state assemblies, in-person training and more than 200 activists trained to take the questions and tasks to the states.
3. Spread ballot boxes Every union, school, association or community kitchen registered its own ballot box; mobile groups went wherever people pass.
4. Talk and record Following the Sind-REDE/BH guidelines: explain with a newsletter or leaflet, ask for the vote, collect name, phone and signature, hand over the ballot. Count Yes and No every week and send a photo of the tally.
5. Produce content The PT put out two new videos a week; creators made satire on their own; allied deputies repeated the theme on their accounts.
6. Cover the legal risk Guidance for creators not to slander, defame or insult, and a proposed legal team to answer questions.
7. Hand over on voting day The partial result was taken to the Speaker of the Chamber and to the President hours before the vote; the Senate handover was set for the eve of the vote there.
8. Keep going After the tax vote in the Chamber, the coordinators said they would step up the fight on the other question, ending the 6x1 schedule, still stalled in the Senate.

And again.

This playbook draws on what the organizers themselves wrote and said: the Popular Plebiscite coordinators and the vote-collection guidelines sent to unions, the Fundação Perseu Abramo magazine, the CUT and Brasil de Fato websites, and what the PT's communications leadership told creators at their meeting. Government communication is kept apart, in its own layer.

• Igor Felippe Santos

  Member of the national executive committee of the Plebiscito Popular por um Brasil Mais Justo (Popular Plebiscite for a Fairer Brazil)

  Was a spokesperson for the national consultation from July to October 2025 and spoke at the handover of the partial result to Lula on the day of the Chamber vote.

  Sources

• Lucas Gertz Monteiro

  State coordinator of the plebiscite in Rio Grande do Sul; Levante Popular da Juventude

  Organized training sessions, brigades and ballot boxes in the state that gathered about 500,000 votes, close to a third of the total counted by mid-October.

  Sources

• Jô Portilho and the Militantes na Luta group

  PT activists in Rio de Janeiro

  Set up street stalls at supermarket entrances and metro stations, where people working the 6x1 schedule (six days on, one off) pass by.

  Sources

• Milton dos Santos Rezende (Miltinho)

  National Mobilization Secretary of the CUT union federation

  Brought the union federation into the vote collection and was at the handover of the partial result to Lula at the presidential palace.

  Sources

• Jilmar Tatto

  Federal deputy (PT-SP) and the PT's national communications secretary

  Led the party's social media push: two new videos a week and the online meeting with about 270 creators on 2 July 2025.

  Sources

• Otávio Antunes

  Marketer in charge of the PT's “taxação BBB” campaign

  Presented the phased plan to creators: first grab attention and fix the idea of fairness, then objective comparisons.

  Sources

• Brasil Sátira do Poder

  AI-made political satire account on TikTok, Instagram and YouTube; the sources read do not say who runs it

  On 20 June 2025 posted what appears to be the first AI-made video of the character “Hugo Nem Se Importa” (Hugo Doesn't Care), a parody of the Chamber's speaker.

  Sources

• Guilherme Boulos and the Frente Povo Sem Medo

  Federal deputy (PSOL-SP); a front of movements that co-organized the plebiscite

  Called the 10 July 2025 rally at MASP in São Paulo for taxing the super-rich and ending the 6x1 schedule, organised with the Frente Brasil Popular, the MTST homeless workers' movement, union federations and the São Paulo city PT.

  Sources

What the organizers said about the decisions they made. Paraphrased unless otherwise noted.

• On the method: “You put a question, and from there you open a dialogue.”

  Igor Felippe Santos, Popular Plebiscite coordination, Agência Brasil, via Diario de Pernambuco, 1 Oct 2025

• At the handover to Lula, he said the government has to go beyond delivering services and “embody causes and ideas”.

  Igor Felippe Santos, Popular Plebiscite coordination, Brasil de Fato, 1 Oct 2025

• At the close, he pointed out that the tax bill still “needs to be passed in the Senate” and that the fight to end the 6x1 schedule would step up.

  Igor Felippe Santos, Popular Plebiscite coordination, CUT, Plebiscito Popular encerra votação com 2,1 milhões de votos, 3 Nov 2025

• “Our big goal is to put the plebiscite on everyone's lips.”

  Lucas Gertz Monteiro, state coordination in Rio Grande do Sul, Brasil de Fato, 17 Jun 2025

Pick the moves that fit your context and add them to your kit.

1. Popular plebiscite with ballot boxes and online

   A consultation with two simple questions, paper ballot boxes at workplaces, schools and on the street, and online voting. In Brazil in 2025, the boxes (more than 10,000 registered) and online voting added up to 2,118,419 votes in 103 days.

   How to set it up, step by step

   Works when

   Works when the cause already has broad support and there are organizations with a physical base and people willing to staff a stall.

   Don't use when

   Doesn't work as proof of a majority: the result has no independent audit and only counts those who chose to vote.

   1. Week −16 Bring the organizations together and settle the questions, two at most
   2. Week −12 Hold state assemblies and train whoever will coordinate the boxes
   3. Week −10 Open ballot box registration and online voting on the same site
   4. Week −10 Hand out ballots, lists with a data protection notice and talking materials
   5. Week −8 Collect at fixed points and with mobile teams, counting every week
   6. Week −2 Hold national action days in the final stretch of collection
   7. D-day week Hand the result to the authorities on voting day

   Team

   • Executive committee: questions, calendar and handovers
   • State secretariat: distributes boxes and adds up votes
   • Ballot box keeper: looks after it, counts and sends the photo

   What to measure: Votes recorded on the paper lists and the site per week, per box; a box that hasn't reported in two weeks gets a phone call.

   Risks to watch: Lists with names and phone numbers are personal data: ask for consent, explain what they are for, store them carefully and never use them for messages people didn't ask for.

   Add to my kitIn my kit

2. Creator network with a line and legal support

   Bring creators together, give them the campaign's line and phases and ask them to produce in their own format, with legal guidance. On 2 July 2025, the PT gathered about 270 creators and offered a legal team for questions.

   How to set it up, step by step

   Works when

   Works when there are already creators sympathetic to the cause and a short slogan that fits any format.

   Don't use when

   Doesn't work as a meeting where people only listen to the leadership, or with hidden payments: a paid creator must say it's advertising.

   1. Week −6 Map creators sympathetic to the cause, big and small
   2. Week −5 Write the line on one page: slogan, number, target and what not to say
   3. Week −4 Hold the online meeting with time for creators to speak
   4. Week −4 Present the legal guidance and the contact for anyone facing a lawsuit
   5. Week −3 Post two of your own videos a week to set the tone
   6. Week −2 Each week, collect the links creators shared for ballot boxes and rallies

   Team

   • Content line: slogan, phases and in-house videos
   • Creator liaison: invites, listens and passes on requests
   • Legal support: advises before and defends after

   What to measure: People who voted in the plebiscite or signed up for a rally through each creator's link, counted on the site.

   Risks to watch: A creator network run by a party leadership can pass for a spontaneous movement: say who convened it and, if anyone is paid, label it as advertising.

   Add to my kitIn my kit

3. AI satire, labelled and with no false accusations

   Short humorous videos, many made with AI, that turn the cause into characters. The PT's “Boteco do Brasa” passed 2 million views on Instagram, and the AI satire “Hugo Nem Se Importa” circulated in the same period.

   How to set it up, step by step

   Works when

   Works when there is a public fact (a vote, a decision) that humour can exaggerate without making things up.

   Don't use when

   Doesn't work when the video could be mistaken for real footage or attributes to someone words or a crime that never happened.

   1. Week −4 Pick the public fact the video will satirise and check the source
   2. Week −4 Write a script of up to one minute with one character and one comparison
   3. Week −3 Produce it with AI and put an on-screen notice that it is AI-made satire
   4. Week −3 Run the script past legal support before posting
   5. Week −3 Post with the plebiscite or rally link in the caption
   6. Week −2 Read the comments and publicly correct any factual error

   Team

   • Script: fact, character and joke
   • Production: generates the video and adds the notice
   • Checking: verifies the fact and the legal guidance

   What to measure: Votes or rally sign-ups that came through the video's link; views don't count as a result.

   Risks to watch: An AI video of a real person can become disinformation out of context and lead to lawsuits: label it on screen, put no invented words in anyone's mouth and follow your country's electoral law.

   Add to my kitIn my kit

4. Hand over the result on voting day

   Close a partial count before the session and hand the votes in person to the decision-makers the same day. On 1 October 2025, the plebiscite handed 1.5 million votes to Hugo Motta and Lula hours before the Chamber passed the bill with 493 votes.

   How to set it up, step by step

   Works when

   Works when the vote date is known a few days in advance and the collection already has an impressive number.

   Don't use when

   Doesn't work as proof that pressure changed votes: in 2025 the cause was already popular and the vote was unanimous.

   1. Week −3 Track the floor agenda and note the likely vote date
   2. Week −2 Request meetings with the presiding officer and the government
   3. Week −1 Close the partial count the day before, with figures by state
   4. Week −1 Prepare the handover object (poster, boxes) and the photo
   5. D-day week Hand over in person and hold local actions the same day
   6. 4 week(s) after Repeat the handover in the other chamber before its vote

   Team

   • Agenda: tracks the floor schedule and requests meetings
   • Count: closes the figures by state
   • Press: alerts journalists and sends the photo

   What to measure: People at the local actions on voting day and new votes recorded the following week.

   Risks to watch: Crediting the win to pressure alone can ring false and burn credibility: say what was handed over and what was voted, without claiming what the mobilisation caused.

   Add to my kitIn my kit

What movements, unions and creators built, laid out so you can copy it in a campaign for a law or a cause that already has broad, diffuse support and needs visible pressure.

What works anywhere and what depended on Brazil in 2025.

Choose your country

The sequence of the Popular Plebiscite and the online push, from months before to the law, as a checklist. Your progress is saved in this browser.

Five questions, each explained after you answer.

The rules below protect the campaign's credibility.

Protect voters' data

Name, phone and signature are personal data under Brazil's LGPD (and the GDPR in Europe). Explain what they are for, store them carefully and don't use them for messages people didn't ask for.

Recognisable satire

Every AI-made video should say on screen that it is satire and was made with AI. In an election period, check the electoral authorities' rules on AI.

Criticism, not slander

Criticise public votes and decisions. Don't attribute crimes or invented words to anyone. That was the guidance given to creators in 2025.

Say who convened it

A creator network organized by a party should say so. A paid creator must label the advertising.

Real people only

No fake accounts, bots or bought engagement to inflate hashtags. The 2025 figures count as evidence precisely because they came from independent listening.

Government is government

Public resources and channels have their own rules. Official communication must not become campaign infrastructure for a party or a movement.

Numbers without exaggeration

Say “votes in the popular plebiscite”, not “the people decided”: the consultation has no legal standing and no independent audit.

Local law

Rules on campaign material, use of someone's image and election periods vary by country. Check with a lawyer before you start.

It doesn't prove it changed votes

The exemption already had 70% support in April and passed unanimously, opposition included. No data separates the effect of the mobilisation from the political cost of voting against such a popular cause.

It didn't reach every group

In early July, Palver did not see the issue enter everyday WhatsApp and Telegram conversations. The push was strong on open social media, where the left already was.

The framing divides

In the July Quaest poll, 53% said talking about rich versus poor creates more conflict. Strategists such as Felipe Soutello called the class-struggle framing outdated and criticised using AI videos instead of real people.

It doesn't settle the other question

The plebiscite also called for ending the 6x1 schedule, which did not move with the income tax bill: in early November 2025, Paulo Paim's proposal was still in the Senate's Constitution and Justice Committee. Congress only approved the end of 6x1 in October 2026 (PEC 221/2019, 75 votes to 1 in the Senate on 14 October, promulgated on 16 October), and no source read links that vote to the plebiscite.

AI blurs boundaries

A study published in June 2026 in Cadernos de Linguística shows these videos mix humour, information and disinformation and put words in politicians' mouths that they would not say in public.

Attacking Congress has a price

“Enemy of the people” irritated the Speaker of the Chamber at a time when the government still needed him. Minister Gleisi Hoffmann condemned the personal attacks on Motta on social media.

Government and movement blur

The presidential palace backed the creators' meeting and the PT was inside the plebiscite. Tatto himself called the push “pre-campaign mode”, and experts quoted in the press criticised the strategy.

This playbook was built mainly from material and statements by the Popular Plebiscite coordinators, the CUT and the PT's communications leadership, polls by Quaest, Datafolha and AtlasIntel, social listening by Quaest, Bites and Palver, and reporting published between June and November 2025. All pages were accessed on 27 October 2026.

Updated 27 October 2026