Presidential candidate Flávio Bolsonaro asked the justice of Brazil to disqualify the rival Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, claiming that the Meta would have favored the campaign of former President Jair Bolsonaro. Lula, in turn, accuses the company of restricting content favorable to its party.
© Lusa
21/10/2026
by
Lusa
O presidential candidate Flávio Bolsonaro asked the justice of Brazil to disqualify rival Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, shortly after the current President threatened to do the same, due to the role of Meta platforms in the campaign.
The appeal submitted to the Superior Electoral Court (TSE) by the lawyers of the far right senator and quoted by the news agency France-Presse (AFP), accuses Lula da Silva of abusive propaganda in a government account of WhatsApp.
The complaint evokes an “abuse of power” by the left-wing leader, who will have carried out through the platform a massive dissemination of content about the government’s performance in the election period.
Flávio Bolsonaro’s team also denounced an alleged “negative propaganda offensive” conducted by the opponent, “with the endorsement” of the American technological giant Meta.
Hours earlier, Lula's campaign team had announced that it would submit an appeal to TSE to cancel Flavio Bolsonaro's candidacy.
The action is based on an alleged “algorithmic manipulation” by Meta, the mother company of Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp, in order to harm Lula, explained source of the team, who asked not to be identified.
The campaign coordinator, Senator Camilo Santana, later declared to the press that the formal submission of the request would take place today.
On Monday, the TSE gave the US technology giant a 24-hour deadline to prove the implementation of measures to ensure equal treatment, on their platforms, between the two campaigns, under penalty of fine.
A day later, the Meta ensured that it concludes that “the implementation of measures to respond to TSE requests” and that “the content relating to both applications is being treated equally and non-discriminatoryly”.
Lula, who was slightly behind, in the first round, the son of former President Jair Bolsonaro, denounced an interference of the Meta in the election and accused the company of restricting contents favorable to the President-in-Office and favor Flávio Bolsonaro through his algorithms and artificial intelligence tools.
His team accused US technology of restricting the circulation of its content on Instagram and WhatsApp.
Lula's Workers' Party also triggered the Organization of American States.
The Meta has always denied any bias in the elections.
Last week, the company recognized the occurrence of problems, such as the deactivation, by mistake, of Lula's campaign announcements, but attributed it to technical issues that did not only affect Brazil.
In the first round, held on October 4, Flávio Bolsonaro obtained 47.03% of the valid votes, against 45.16% of Lula da Silva, an advantage of 2.224,965 votes, and since the introduction of the system of two rounds in the Brazilian presidential, in 1989, no candidate who finished the first vote in second place managed to win the election.