Lula Campaign Files Electoral and Data Protection Complaints Against Meta
President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva’s reelection campaign filed formal complaints with Brazil’s Superior Electoral Court and the National Data Protection Agency, accusing Meta of unequal treatment that favored candidate Flávio Bolsonaro ahead of the first round of voting.
The company, which includes Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, Messenger, and Threads, came under scrutiny after campaign officials reported sudden visibility drops and search suppression affecting leftist accounts. The Partido dos Trabalhadores campaign stated that Meta blocked Lula’s profile from promoting feed publications on Instagram and interrupted view counts on official content.
Before Sunday’s initial vote—which left Flávio Bolsonaro in first place with 47% of preferences against Lula’s 45%—pages belonging to the president and other leftist figures vanished from Instagram’s internal search engine. Meta attributed these disruptions to technical glitches impacting other advertisers.
Yet the campaign rejected these technical explanations due to a complete absence of system transparency. The candidate’s team called the situation an opaque attempt to tilt the Brazilian electoral process toward the candidacy of Flávio Bolsonaro.
Contrasting Digital Strategies in the Run-up to the Second Round
While the legal battle over platform architecture unfolds, both campaigns are aggressively recalibrating their digital strategies for the October 25 runoff. Lula’s camp has shifted toward short-form selfie videos and novel digital formats designed to re-engage abstentionists.
At the same time, the digital ecosystem remains a space for intense political friction. Flávio Bolsonaro and Deputy Nikolas Ferreira used social channels to amplify a claim alleging that Lula intends to close churches, resurfacing an old post from Ana Elisa Santos, deputy-elect for the Workers’ Party. Santos reported threats against her safety.
The underlying infrastructure of these social networks thus functions as both a campaign megaphone and a legal battleground. With roughly a two-million-vote gap separating the two contenders after the first count, access to unhindered distribution has become a factor for the remaining weeks of the race.
Flávio Bolsonaro Outlines Transition and Penal Reforms in São Gonçalo
Campaigning in São Gonçalo in the Metropolitan Region of Rio de Janeiro, Flávio Bolsonaro outlined his political and legislative priorities during a weekend vehicle rally. The candidate declared to his supporters that his father, former president Jair Bolsonaro, would personally hand him the presidential sash if he wins the election.
Jair Bolsonaro is currently serving a prison sentence following a Supreme Federal Court conviction for leading an attempted coup d’état after his 2022 defeat to Lula. The candidate, who maintains close ties with Javier Milei and is supported by Donald Trump, positioned his campaign as the end of the era of Lula in Brazil.
During the same rally, the candidate proposed strict legislative measures regarding public safety and criminal sentencing. His platform includes lowering the age of criminal responsibility to 16, authorizing 16-year-olds to obtain driver’s licenses, implementing chemical castration for those convicted of rape, and mandating an eight-year minimum closed-regime prison sentence for smartphone theft with a mandatory labor requirement.
With judicial bodies reviewing the data protection and electoral complaints filed against Meta, the Brazilian presidential race enters its final two-week stretch under intense regulatory and digital scrutiny.
