Lula and Flavio Bolsonaro each seek to disqualify the other before Brazil's runoff
Brazil's two presidential candidates have each called for the disqualification of their rival ahead of the October 25 runoff, citing alleged interference on social media.
Lawyers for Flavio Bolsonaro filed a request on Tuesday, October 20, with the Superior Electoral Court (TSE), the country's top electoral court. Al Jazeera reported that the request seeks to annul the candidacy of the incumbent, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva. It alleges abuse of power through the mass sharing of government posts on WhatsApp during the campaign period. The request also asks that Lula and Social Communications Minister Sidonio Palmeira be declared ineligible to hold public office for eight years. Ineligibility means being barred from standing for or holding office.
Lula's campaign said it would ask for Bolsonaro's disqualification on Wednesday, October 22. It accuses Meta, which owns Facebook, WhatsApp and Instagram, of "algorithmic manipulation" aimed at harming Lula's chances. The campaign alleges that Meta has been suppressing Lula's online content to boost Bolsonaro. As of October 21, that petition had not yet been formally filed.
The dispute follows a separate case against Meta. On Monday, October 19, the TSE gave the company 24 hours to prove it was complying with an order to treat both presidential campaigns equally. The court warned of a daily fine of around $200,000. On October 20, Meta said it had completed the measures needed to comply with the court's decision. The TSE's own account of its hearing with Meta described the court's concern with what it called "paridade de armas," or equal footing, between the campaigns. TSE president Kassio Nunes Marques has assigned minister Marco Aurelio Bellizze to act as auxiliary judge for electoral propaganda in that case.
Earlier, on October 16, NBC News reported that Lula had won an electoral court challenge against Meta over alleged bias in its algorithm favouring Bolsonaro, with a judge ruling that the company must take action. In September, the TSE had published Meta's election plan for 2026, which includes combating disinformation and removing violent content. According to the TSE, Meta said it would use metadata on WhatsApp to identify and label content generated or edited with artificial intelligence.
The contest itself is close. In the first round, Flavio Bolsonaro took 47 percent of the vote to Lula's 45 percent, and polls have shown a very tight runoff.
Electoral bans of this kind have precedent in Brazil. In October 2023, the TSE declared Jair Bolsonaro and former minister Walter Braga Netto ineligible for eight years over abuse of power connected to an event marking the Bicentennial of Independence. The eight years were counted from the 2022 election.
