Meta employees have acknowledged in internal messages that restrictions affected the social media accounts of Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva in the days leading up to the country’s presidential election, according to a report by Folha de S.Paulo. The revelations have intensified concerns about the role of technology platforms in an election campaign marked by a close contest and accusations of unequal treatment.
Meta, the US technology company that owns Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp, has attributed the incidents to technical errors and denied taking sides in elections. Lula’s campaign, however, has reported the matter to the Organisation of American States (OAS), arguing that the alleged restrictions could interfere with the electoral process.
Brazil is approaching a presidential vote in which opinion polls indicate a technical tie between Lula and his far-right challenger, Flávio Bolsonaro, the son of former president Jair Bolsonaro. With campaigning increasingly concentrated on digital platforms, disputes over content visibility and algorithmic recommendations have become a source of political tension.
According to Folha de S.Paulo, Lula’s official Instagram account was unable to promote posts published on its feed for almost 24 hours on 9 October. Campaign administrators estimated that the restriction prevented nearly 1.3 million internet users from seeing the promoted content.
Brazilian Meta employees contacted engineering colleagues in the United States about the problem, but the US-based team did not initially treat it as urgent, the newspaper reported.
Other incidents have also raised concerns about possible preferential treatment. Searches for Lula on WhatsApp reportedly recommended Flávio Bolsonaro’s channel, while Instagram automatically suggested the opposition candidate’s profile. Lula’s profile, by contrast, allegedly failed to appear even when users entered his name.
Brazilian electoral legislation prohibits algorithmic recommendations of candidates, according to the report. The incidents have therefore raised questions about Meta’s compliance with the country’s electoral rules.
Another controversy involved Meta’s artificial intelligence tools. Users reportedly found that the system refused to generate images supporting Lula while producing similar material for Flávio Bolsonaro. In one example, a user requested a red poster featuring the words “Vote Lula” and a star, but the system responded that it could not generate the requested image.
Meta said in a statement on Friday that it did not take sides in these or any other elections. The company acknowledged that Lula’s account had been suspended “by mistake” and said recent technical incidents had affected both campaigns.
Flávio Bolsonaro’s campaign, however, told Folha de S.Paulo that it had experienced no problems and that its channels continued to operate normally without interruptions.
Lula’s campaign filed a formal complaint with the OAS on Wednesday and notified international election observers registered to monitor Brazil’s vote, as well as political parties and democracy-focused organisations in 12 countries.
“We cannot accept this interference by big technology companies, especially Meta, in these elections,” said Camilo Santana, Lula’s campaign coordinator.
The controversy comes amid broader concerns within Brazil’s left about the influence of technology companies and decisions by the Superior Electoral Court, which oversees electoral disputes and rules on whether campaign content and online profiles can remain accessible.
The court’s presiding judge, Kássio Nunes Marques, appointed by Jair Bolsonaro, has issued unilateral rulings that have generally been more damaging to Lula’s campaign than to his rival’s, according to the report.
Among the most significant decisions was the suspension on two occasions of the WhatsApp channel Exército de Lula, created by lawmaker André Janones. The community has more than four million volunteers, whom Janones uses the channel to instruct on how to maximise the circulation of campaign material.
The disputes have added to concerns about the fairness of the online campaign as Brazil approaches a closely contested election. Lula’s team has warned against what it sees as unequal treatment by major technology platforms, while Meta maintains that the reported incidents stemmed from technical problems rather than political bias.
