Politics · Brazil · 2 hrs ago
Brazil’s top election court orders Meta to treat Lula and Flávio campaigns equally
Brazil’s top electoral court upheld an order requiring Meta to treat the campaigns of Lula and Flávio Bolsonaro equally on its platforms.
The order applies to Instagram, Facebook and WhatsApp during the 2026 presidential runoff, which is scheduled for October 25.
It bars Meta from artificially reducing political content’s reach or restricting candidates’ accounts and paid posts without human review.
If an automated system imposes a restriction, Meta must review it within two hours and tell the court what happened.
The ruling followed a complaint from Lula’s campaign, which alleged that Meta’s platforms repeatedly limited its posts; Meta said the claims were false and blamed global technical problems.
The court also barred political ads for either candidate that were not contracted by their campaign or party, and Meta faces a daily fine of 500,000 reais for violations until the runoff ends.
Brazil’s Superior Electoral Court unanimously upheld an order requiring Meta to treat the Lula and Flávio Bolsonaro campaigns equally on its platforms.
The order bars Meta from artificially reducing the reach of election-related content for either candidate in the 2026 runoff.
If an automated system restricts a candidate’s account or content promotion, Meta must review the action within two hours and report it to the court.
The measures remain in force until the runoff ends on October 25, 2026, and violations carry a daily fine of 500,000 reais.
The ruling followed a complaint by Lula’s campaign, which accused Meta of disadvantaging its content; Meta said the allegations were false.
- Who
- Brazil’s Superior Electoral Court ordered Meta to act. The order concerns the campaigns of President Lula and Senator Flávio Bolsonaro.
- What
- The court upheld measures requiring equal treatment of the campaigns and restricting certain political ads.
- When
- The court confirmed the decision on Friday, October 16, 2026. The measures apply through October 25.
- Where
- Meta’s Instagram, Facebook and WhatsApp platforms.
- Why
- Lula’s campaign complained that Meta was repeatedly failing to deliver its posts and said the company was interfering in the runoff. Meta said the allegations were false and attributed a promotion problem to a global technical issue.
Lula’s campaign
Meta
Alleged platform bias
Lula’s campaign
The campaign accused Meta of repeatedly and systematically failing to deliver Lula’s posts and of interfering in the election in Flávio Bolsonaro’s favor.
Meta
Meta said the allegations were false and that the promotion problem resulted from global technical issues, not issues affecting only Brazil.
Reported restrictions
Lula’s campaign
Lula’s campaign said its Instagram profile could not promote feed posts on October 9, and estimated about 1.3 million people missed the ads.
Meta
Meta said the technical problems were global; internal messages reported by Folha indicated a separate global issue occurred on October 7 and lasted five hours.
A study by the British organization Eko reported that Meta accepted political ads aimed at Brazilians, paid for from a US-based account, containing unlabeled AI-generated false election information.
Internal messages reported by Folha said a global issue affecting content promotion occurred for five hours.
Lula’s official profile was unable to promote Instagram feed posts for almost 24 hours, according to the article.
The Superior Electoral Court unanimously upheld the order requiring Meta to treat the campaigns equally.
The runoff is scheduled to end, when the court’s measures cease to apply.
- Court
- Brazil’s Superior Electoral Court (TSE)
- Candidates
- Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and Flávio Bolsonaro
- Automated restriction review
- Within two hours
- Daily fine
- 500,000 reais
- Measures end
- October 25, 2026
1 source
What people are saying
repeatedly and systematically
the allegations were false