Brazilian election court gives Meta 24 hours to comply with ruling - Valor International

Brazil’s Superior Electoral Court (TSE) has given Meta 24 hours to prove it has complied with an order to prevent restrictions on the reach of political and election-related posts by candidates in the presidential runoff, ensuring equal treatment of both campaigns.

The order was issued Sunday (Oct. 18) by Justice Marco Aurélio Bellizze.

On Thursday (Oct. 15), Bellizze barred Meta from limiting the reach of election-related content on its platforms. The ruling was upheld by the TSE's full bench in a virtual session on Friday. Meta subsequently filed a response saying it had complied with some of the requirements and was implementing the others, subject to certain reservations.

One of those reservations concerned the 24-hour deadline to stop running election advertisements that had not been purchased by official campaigns and remove those already circulating. Meta said it could not meet that deadline.

The company argued that complying within the specified period would require suspending all advertisements addressing social issues, elections or politics. Instead, it said it would begin allowing ads in those categories only from accounts linked to candidacies registered with the TSE, with at least 72 hours needed to implement the change.

Bellizze, however, concluded that Meta was attempting to set its own deadlines in violation of the court's orders. He therefore instructed the company to demonstrate full compliance within 24 hours or face daily fines of R$1 million until the end of the runoff.

Meta also filed an appeal after the ruling was unanimously upheld by the court's justices. Bellizze said the appeal did not suspend the earlier decision, meaning the company remained required to comply within the original deadlines.

The justice also ordered Meta to submit its compliance reports entirely in Portuguese, clearly distinguishing between measures taken to fulfill the court order and those adopted on the company's own initiative.

Bellizze additionally granted a request by presidential candidate Flávio Bolsonaro of the Liberal Party (PL), the eldest son of former President Jair Bolsonaro, to join the case as an interested party.

The senator's campaign had sought to participate in the proceedings, arguing that it, too, had been harmed by Meta's actions. The decision allows Flávio to present arguments in the case.

Last week, the TSE granted a request from the campaign of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva of the Workers' Party (PT).

The campaign alleged that Meta had selectively restricted posts by Lula and accounts expressing political positions aligned with the president, potentially undermining fairness in this year's presidential election.

It also challenged what it described as discriminatory treatment by Meta's artificial intelligence image-generation tool. The complaint alleged that the system blocked campaign images associated with Lula while allowing similar content linked to Flávio.

On Monday (Oct. 19), demonstrators gathered outside Meta's offices in São Paulo to protest what they alleged was interference in Brazil's presidential election.

Under the slogan “Meta não se meta” (“Meta, stay out of it”), protesters criticized restrictions imposed on Lula's Instagram account, which the company reportedly attributed to “global technical failures.”

The new order comes amid complaints from both presidential campaigns over Meta's handling of election-related content. Meta has denied favoring either candidate and attributed reported problems to technical issues.

This article was translated from Valor Econômico using an artificial intelligence tool under the supervision of the Valor International editorial team to ensure accuracy, clarity, and adherence to our editorial standards. Read our Editorial Principles.