TLDR
Brazil's Superior Electoral Court gave Meta 48 hours on 10 October to justify any restrictions applied to Lula campaign accounts on Instagram, after the PT alleged promoted posts were blocked and leftist profiles vanished from search. Meta denied the claims outright. The runoff between Lula and Flávio Bolsonaro is set for 25 October.
Court demands answers within 48 hours
Brazil's Superior Electoral Court (TSE) ordered Meta Platforms on 10 October to provide a detailed explanation, account by account, of any restrictions it had applied to campaign profiles linked to Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva's Partido dos Trabalhadores, after the party alleged that Instagram had systematically limited the reach of its campaign material in the days before the first-round vote.[1] The court set a 48-hour deadline for its response and required Meta to produce a separate, profile-by-profile disclosure that covered every measure applied to each account associated with the campaign.
What the PT alleged
The PT raised three distinct complaints about Instagram's treatment of its campaign material: promoted posts on Instagram were blocked from running, view counters on content were interrupted mid-publication, and leftist profiles were made unsearchable on the platform in the lead-up to the 4 October first round. The allegations pointed to algorithmic or administrative intervention affecting individual accounts rather than a blanket policy breach, making the TSE's demand for granular, account-level data the operative question in its review of the complaints.
Flávio Bolsonaro of the PL finished first in the first round, with Lula finishing second, setting up a presidential runoff on 25 October 2026.[1] Both campaigns are relying heavily on paid and organic digital reach throughout the remaining campaign period before 25 October, giving the TSE's intervention immediate practical weight.
Meta's denial and its prior commitments
Meta Brazil rejected the PT's allegations as "simply false" and "not supported by the facts".[1] By that point, the company had already entered a framework of formal obligations with the TSE well before the first round. In September 2026, Meta submitted its Plan of Conformity to the TSE under Portaria-TSE 463/2026, detailing measures to prevent and mitigate electoral risks across its platforms.[3]
What the TSE order means in practice
The TSE's 48-hour order went beyond that framework, requiring Meta to produce specific evidence about individual account-level actions rather than general policy statements.
The second round of the 2026 presidential election is confirmed for Sunday, 25 October 2026.[2]
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