Meta told Brazil’s top electoral court it had applied equal treatment to the campaigns of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and Sen. Flávio Bolsonaro before their Oct. 25 runoff.
The Superior Electoral Court (TSE) gave Meta 24 hours on Monday to document compliance with its Oct. 15 directive requiring equal treatment through the runoff. The court warned of a daily fine of about $200,000 if Meta failed to demonstrate compliance. It said Judge Marco Aurélio Bellizze met the company and representatives of both campaigns on Oct. 20, after receiving Meta’s response.
Poder360 reported that Meta told the court it had removed 720 posts with AI-generated election content lacking proper identification. The company said its AI tool applied the same criteria to both candidates.
Meta owns Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp. Lula’s campaign described the dispute as interference, alleging that Meta suppressed its online content to help Flávio Bolsonaro. It also said WhatsApp’s AI image-generation tool limited Lula-related election content while leaving similar Bolsonaro material untouched. Meta denied favoring either candidate. The Oct. 15 court directive followed those complaints.
Meta had previously said some of Lula’s campaign ads were mistakenly deactivated because of technical errors that were not isolated to Brazil. It also told the court a person would review automated restrictions on campaign ad accounts within two hours, a step covered in EconoTimes’ earlier report on the review requirement.
Meta’s independent Oversight Board co-chairs warned of recurring election-related enforcement failures, citing mistaken restrictions on Lula’s campaign ad accounts. AFP reported that dozens of Lula supporters protested outside Meta’s Sao Paulo offices on Monday.
AFP reported that Sen. Flávio Bolsonaro, the right-wing challenger and son of jailed former leader Jair Bolsonaro, received 47% of the vote in the first round earlier this month, compared with Lula’s 45%; polls showed a technical tie. Lula is seeking a fourth nonconsecutive term. Brazil’s runoff is scheduled for Sunday, Oct. 25.
