Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva’s campaign accused Meta of election interference on Saturday after his social media content was allegedly restricted across Instagram and Facebook ahead of an upcoming presidential runoff.
Brazil Superior Electoral Court Order and Meta Fine Threat
In response to the campaign’s grievances, Brazil’s Superior Electoral Court issued a directive granting the technology corporation a 48-hour window to account for any diminished visibility of Lula’s campaign posts and to address the alleged irregularities. The court ordered Meta to report, profile by profile, all the measures applied to Lula's official accounts
and to explain the metrics anomalies.
Brazil’s top electoral court has ordered Meta to ensure equal treatment of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and his rival, Flávio Bolsonaro, ahead of their October 25 runoff.The ruling follows claims by #Lula’s campaign that Meta’s algorithms, advertising restrictions, and… pic.twitter.com/f8N56qCGP0
A subsequent ruling delivered on Thursday by Justice Marco Aurelio Bellizze ordered Meta to adopt immediate measures to ensure equal treatment of both candidates before the October 25 runoff. Under the terms of the decision, Meta is prohibited from cutting back political content distribution, limiting searches, or taking down posts in a manner that produces an unfair advantage or disadvantage between Lula and his opponent, Senator Flavio Bolsonaro. The court also ordered the company to ensure its artificial intelligence tool applies identical criteria to both campaigns, backed by a penalty of 500,000 reais ($98,700) per day for non-compliance, as Bellizze said in his ruling that Meta must pay a fine of 500,000 reais ($98,700) per day.
Campaign Restrictions and Internal Meta Communications
Lula’s campaign detailed specific instances of platform limitations in its filings and public statements. Legal representatives noted that Meta blocked President Lula’s profile from boosting posts on the Instagram feed, and that an update on his official account suffered a view-count glitch that hindered its overall audience reach. Prior to the first round of voting — which concluded with Flavio Bolsonaro finishing first — profiles belonging to Lula and other leftist leaders suddenly disappeared from Instagram’s search function.
According to Lula’s party, certain posts appeared without a share button and lacked options for reactions, sharing, audio, or accelerated speed. Internal communications reviewed by Brazilian daily Folha de S Paulo and reported on Friday revealed that Meta employees acknowledged in internal messages that the Instagram accounts of the Brazilian president were negatively affected by restrictions during the election. Those same messages noted that the platform recommended Bolsonaro’s profile and his WhatsApp channel.
Meta Rebuffs Interference Claims Amid Runoff Preparations
Meta’s Brazil office rejected the allegations from Lula’s campaign, calling the claims simply false
and asserting they were not supported by the facts. In an email statement, the company told reporters that many of the technical issues mentioned did not affect only Brazil or specific accounts. Meta added that it complies with electoral regulations and remains committed to maintaining a level playing field across its platforms.
In communications with the Reuters news agency, Meta maintained that the technical discussions referenced in internal reports related solely to the severity of technical issues rather than any political interference.
Any suggestion that Meta favors one side is false.
Meta, Corporate Statement
Following the first-round vote earlier this month, Lula launched an online campaign featuring videos addressed to his followers. The president, who does not use a mobile phone, faces right-wing challenger Flavio Bolsonaro, the son of former president Jair Bolsonaro, in the presidential runoff scheduled for October 25.