Brazil’s Superior Electoral Court (TSE) has given Meta Platforms 48 hours to explain whether it limited the reach of President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva’s social media posts. Lula’s re-election campaign has accused the US technology group of interfering in the race to benefit his rival, Flavio Bolsonaro, ahead of the October 25 runoff.
The order, issued on October 10, requires Meta to report each measure applied since August 16 to Lula’s official profiles and to third-party accounts, profile by profile. That includes any cut in reach, removal from recommendations or search restrictions.
The court also told the owner of Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp to explain irregular viewing figures on campaign videos posted on October 7. It must give the specific reason the campaign’s advertising account was disabled on September 23, and keep all related records, moderation logs, ad data and metrics.
Meta rejected the accusations. “The allegations are simply false and have no basis in fact,” the company said in a statement cited by Estadao. In an email to AFP, Meta said “many of the technical issues mentioned did not affect only Brazil or specific accounts” and added: “We comply with electoral regulations and are committed to a level playing field regarding the use of our platforms.”
Lula’s campaign has filed a complaint with the electoral court. It said that in recent days Meta had stopped Lula’s profile from promoting Instagram feed posts, and that view counts on a post from his official account had been interrupted, reducing its reach, according to AFP. The campaign added that before the first round on October 4, the Instagram profiles of Lula and other leftist politicians had disappeared from the platform’s search function.
“The series of technical issues... raises strong suspicions that Meta’s actions constitute an attempt to interfere in the Brazilian electoral process to the benefit of Flavio Bolsonaro’s candidacy,” the campaign said in a statement quoted by AFP. News portal G1 reported that the campaign also intends to take the matter to Brazil’s National Data Protection Authority.
Lula's Workers’ Party (PT) supported its complaint with two studies, from fact-checking agency Agencia Lupa and the Instituto Democracia em Xeque. The second study identified a network of 255 Instagram profiles run using artificial intelligence. According to Estadao, those profiles gained 58mn views in a month with posts attacking Lula, the PT and first lady Janja da Silva. The court asked Meta whether it had detected the network and what action it took, and asked both organisations to submit their methodologies.
Meta must also describe how it applies a TSE rule that excludes candidates’ profiles from recommendation systems, and whether it applies the rule equally to both campaigns. Once Meta responds, the Lula coalition and the Electoral Attorney General’s Office will each have 24 hours to comment before the court decides on the campaign’s request for urgent relief.
Right-wing senator Flavio Bolsonaro is the son of convicted former president Jair Bolsonaro, a close ideological ally of US President Donald Trump. He finished first in the October 4 opening round with 47.03% of the vote, against 45.16% for Lula, who is seeking a fourth non-consecutive term. Several polls published since the first round show Bolsonaro leading the runoff. Since the first round, 80-year-old Lula has ramped up his social media campaign, posting dozens of videos in which he speaks to his online followers in a bid to woo the nearly 34mn Brazilians who did not cast a vote.
Relations between Meta and Brazilian authorities have been tense since January 2025, when President Trump took office. That month, Meta Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg ended the company’s US fact-checking programme and criticised “secret courts” in Latin America, comments widely read as aimed at Brazil’s Supreme Court. The court had blocked X, formerly Twitter, for 40 days the previous year accusing it of facilitating the spread of disinformation. Digital Policy Secretary Joao Brant accused Meta at the time of joining “the US government to confront the EU, Brazil, and other countries that seek to protect rights in the online environment.”
Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes responded that social media companies must comply with Brazilian law to keep operating, regardless of “big tech executives’ bravado.” In June this year, the Supreme Court issued a final ruling that makes platforms civilly liable for illegal content posted by users when they fail to adopt adequate measures to prevent or remove it.
The dispute with Meta also follows months of accusations of foreign meddling in the vote. Brazil’s intelligence agency Abin briefed French and German officials in Brasilia last month about alleged interference by the US and Russia ahead of the election, Reuters reported.
On October 1, Attorney General Jorge Messias asked federal police and Prosecutor General Paulo Gonet to investigate a $1mn grant from the US State Department’s Human Rights and Democracy Fund. The Guardian had reported the previous day that the money backs a programme titled “Countering Lawfare and Censorship in Brazil”, supporting civil-society groups challenging what the programme calls overreach and censorship by the Supreme Court, which convicted Jair Bolsonaro of attempting a coup after his 2022 election defeat. Washington denies trying to interfere in Brazil’s elections, and Moscow denies meddling abroad.
On September 28, three Democratic US senators, Jeanne Shaheen, Tim Kaine and Peter Welch, wrote to Secretary of State Marco Rubio asking him to commit to recognising the winner of Brazil’s election. Their letter cited US tariffs and targeted sanctions enacted by the Trump administration to discourage the prosecution of Jair Bolsonaro. It also cited a meeting between Trump and Flavio Bolsonaro. In July, the Office of the US Trade Representative imposed a 25% tariff on some Brazilian imports, citing what it called unfair trade practices, after the US Supreme Court struck down earlier levies.