Overview
- Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva won re-election with more than 64 million votes, securing a fourth presidential term in the Oct. 25 runoff and thanking allies and supporters in a victory speech in São Paulo.
- In that speech he said the campaign overcame what he called interference coming from outside through online platforms and announced he will move to regulate how those platforms operate in Brazil.
- Lula insisted that crimes committed online should be treated the same as crimes offline and criticized large tech firms for influencing elections and for what he called aggressive tax and market behavior.
- He pledged to change how the government governs by boosting popular participation and using digital communication more directly, promising frequent direct messages to citizens and programs for data and AI infrastructure.
- Implementing platform rules will require new laws or regulations and is likely to trigger political debate and pushback from major technology companies, while supporters say the result reflects broad mobilization by youth, women and the elderly.