Overview
- Both campaigns have asked the Superior Electoral Court to disqualify the other for social‑media abuses, with Lula's team alleging Meta-fueled algorithmic interference and Flavio Bolsonaro's camp accusing Lula of abusive mass messaging on WhatsApp.
- The TSE has ordered Meta to guarantee equal treatment for candidates and given the company short deadlines to show fixes, threatening fines of up to one million reais per day if it fails to comply.
- Lula’s campaign says concrete platform problems reduced his Instagram reach, blocked boosting for about 24 hours, removed sharing buttons from posts and triggered AI refusals on WhatsApp, while Meta says the issues were global technical incidents and anti‑fraud checks.
- United Nations rights experts and Meta’s independent oversight board have publicly urged stronger safeguards for political expression and flagged evidence that thousands of accounts or posts faced suspensions or reduced visibility.
- Because Meta controls internal moderation and algorithm logs, outside actors face limits proving intentional bias, and the dispute centers on unequal paid digital spending and organized WhatsApp networks that could shape turnout and voter information in the days before the runoff.