Three Nations Went to Vote. Here's How Each of Them Campaign for It.
Brazil's runoff closed on October 25, Americans voted on November 3, and South Africans voted on November 4. In each country their Twibbon Frame carried something different.
Americans went to the polls on November 3. South Africans voted the following day, November 4, for councillors. Just a week before that, Brazilians wrapped up runoff in October. Three elections in twenty days, and on each of them people put up a Twibbon on their profiles to mean something different.
Brazil's October election filled the explore page with candidate campaigns, most of them run by the candidate's own account or by someone on the campaign. A key characteristic is that almost each campaign shows a set of numbers, which correspond to the candidate's ballot numbers. But this means one thing, a Brazilian who wore a Twibbon was declaring who they were for.
In the northern part of the Americas, they used the platform differently. On November 3, the morning Americans went to the polls, Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Incorporated published Delta Decides - Election Day 2026.
Campaign by Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Incorporated
The words running around the opening for a supporter's face read: "Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc. We register, We vote, We protect." A week later, 3,688 people had put their photo in it. A similar campaign was also released on the same day by a chapter of another notable Greek organization, Alpha Kappa Alpha, AKA,Inc. TAO - I Voted 2026.
The largest American voting campaign on the platform is two years old. Finer Women VOTE! was published by Zeta Phi Beta Sorority, Inc. on 4 September 2024, and has 4,112 supporters. The phrase belongs to Zeta. Members call themselves Finer Women, from the sorority's founding principle of Finer Womanhood, so the Frame works to signal membership and tell one what to do.
But telling alone sometimes is not enough. Therefore creators say it plainly what voting should mean. Christ Missionary Baptist Church describes that voting is "a sacred responsibility and an act of service, justice, and love for our neighbors" in their campaign. Western Province Kappa Alpha Psi goes as far as to position voting as an action one needs to pledge to.
The reason these Frames read more as receipts or vows, rather than endorsements could be related to how American law is written. In short, Americans are not required to vote. Roughly 124 million people cast a ballot in 2026, according to preliminary figures from the University of Florida Election Lab, up from 112 million in 2022, but tens of millions of eligible Americans still did not. An individual who is eligible to vote must also register themselves first so they can actually vote.
In a regulatory sense, the election relies on one's own will to participate. Yet people responded with reminding one another of their rights through community. Illustrating this was, again, Delta Sigma Theta which published Delta Decides - I Registered Two People! Calling members to register two people to vote. Along the same lines were the campaigns South Central Region Secure the Vote and I’m Registered to Vote #SecureTheVote, both by different regional chapters of the African American family organization Jack and Jill of America.
The campaigns listed above suggest that the useful thing to publish, in the country's context, is not a profile which proclaims your party, but a badge which reminds others what they need to show up for.
Another kind of campaign came from South Africa. The country does not require its citizens to vote either, but the trending Twibbon there looks nothing like the American ones.
An account called Angelique published two campaigns on November 2. The first, I Vote ANC - We Vote ANC, asks supporters to "add your face to the movement. Upload your photo, put on the I Vote ANC frame and make it your profile picture on Instagram, Facebook, WhatsApp and X." It has 118 supporters. The second, I Voted ANC, is for after the voting. It says "show your community you've made your mark." It garnered 9,533 supporters. Aligned with the party's reported attempt to regain popularity, these two were the only ones published during South African elections. The first one is for announcing who you will vote for. The second Twibbon reads like proof that you did vote for them.
But the countries above haven't attempted to bring popularity to a candidate the way the Philippines did during the 2022 presidential election, by incorporating their celebrity idols to the Twibbon. Swifties for Leni-Kiko campaign notably garnered 3,908 supporters. In this case, the Twibbon combined a supporter's two faves, the pop idol they love and the candidate they want to win.
Multiple ways of campaigning in just one platform. Marketing ballot numbers, promoting to register and vote, declaring loyalty to a party, and using one's fandom to declare support. What all these Twibbons have in common is the creators mold the platform to what they see fit.
