Lula Campaign Accuses Meta of Election Interference Ahead of Runoff
President Lula's campaign accuses Meta of suppressing his digital reach, filing complaints with Brazil's electoral court and data protection authority.
The presidential campaign of Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva has formally accused US tech giant Meta of electoral interference, escalating a high-stakes battle over digital sovereignty just weeks before a tense runoff vote. The campaign announced it is filing complaints with the Superior Electoral Court (TSE), Brazil's top electoral authority, and the National Data Protection Authority (ANPD). The legal offensive claims that technical glitches on Meta's platforms have systematically suppressed the president's digital reach while boosting his far-right opponent.
According to Lula's campaign, the restrictions directly targeted his digital operations as he entered the final stretch of the race against Senator Flávio Bolsonaro, the eldest son of former President Jair Bolsonaro. Campaign officials alleged that from October 9 to October 10, Instagram blocked Lula's profile from using paid promotions to boost content. The campaign also pointed to a prior incident on September 23, just before the October 4 first-round vote, when Meta temporarily deactivated Lula's main advertising account.
Lula's Workers' Party (PT) released internal metrics showing that Flávio Bolsonaro’s Instagram page received nearly three times more interactions on average than Lula's, despite having 17.2% fewer followers. The campaign argues these discrepancies are not random glitches but represent a pattern of platform bias. Meta has strongly rejected the accusations, calling them false and unsupported by facts. In a statement, the company maintained that the technical issues were global, did not target specific candidates, and that both campaigns have maintained active, equal access to advertising tools.
The Electoral Stakes
The clash comes at an incredibly delicate moment in Brazilian politics. In the October 4 first-round election, Flávio Bolsonaro defied expectations to lead with 47.03% of the vote, while Lula secured 45.16%. The two are locked in a fierce campaign ahead of the October 25 runoff. The first major post-election poll by Datafolha, conducted on October 6–7, showed Bolsonaro leading the runoff projections with 52% of valid votes against Lula's 48%.
For Lula, a veteran leftist seeking a fourth presidential term, the digital arena is a critical vulnerability. His campaign has increasingly framed the election as a battle for national sovereignty, accusing foreign tech platforms and conservative US political figures of meddling in Brazil's domestic affairs. Conversely, the Bolsonaro camp has historically commanded a highly sophisticated and decentralized online mobilization network, which they argue is being unfairly targeted by Brazil’s strict judicial oversight.
Regulatory Consequences
The complaints place Meta back in the crosshairs of Brazil’s aggressive regulatory institutions. The TSE, currently led by Supreme Court Justice Kassio Nunes Marques, wields extraordinary powers to police online disinformation, ban deepfakes, and hold tech platforms legally liable for systemic failures. In extreme cases, the court has the authority to suspend platform operations within the country or levy massive daily fines.
By involving the ANPD alongside the electoral court, Lula's legal team is attempting to establish whether Meta's algorithmic distribution and ad-blocking policies violated national data protection laws. While Meta has restored the campaign's advertising capabilities, the TSE's upcoming review of the interference claims could result in unprecedented court-mandated audits of Meta's content distribution algorithms in Latin America's largest democracy.