Lula's party accuses Meta of election interference before Brazil's runoff
Lula's campaign said the Workers' Party will file a complaint with the Organization of American States, alleging that Meta limits his Instagram reach and skews its AI image tool before the 25 October runoff.
Complaint against Meta
President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva has asked his Workers' Party (PT) to file a complaint against Meta with the Organization of American States (OAS), his campaign announced on Wednesday, 14 October. The campaign accuses the company of interfering in the election ahead of the runoff on 25 October, in which Lula faces the right-wing senator Flávio Bolsonaro. According to the PT, Meta restricts how widely Lula's Instagram content is seen and blocks some of the campaign's advertisements, which could limit the reach of electoral messages. The complaint also says Lula's official profile was unable to promote posts on Instagram on 9 and 10 October. Meta rejects the accusations and attributes the reported problems to technical issues rather than political favouritism.
The campaign has also taken the matter to Brazil's electoral court, the Tribunal Superior Eleitoral (TSE). Its petition accuses Meta of limiting the reach of the campaign's posts and of giving disproportionate distribution to content linked to Flávio Bolsonaro. It also challenges Meta AI, the company's assistant available on WhatsApp, and asks for urgent measures to correct what the campaign calls unequal treatment. The TSE asked Meta to clarify the alleged restrictions and the criteria used to distribute content. Earlier, on Tuesday, 13 October, the TSE had ordered Google Brasil to answer within 24 hours accusations that its AI tools attributed false statements about organised crime and terrorism to the president.
Image generation tests
Users of Meta AI reported that the tool refused to generate images containing the name 'Lula' while allowing images with the name 'Flávio'. Lusa tested the tool and found that a command for 'Flávio 22' produced flags and shirts bearing the name and number, while 'Lula 13' did not. A command using the full name 'Flávio Bolsonaro 22' produced no content. A BBC News Brasil test on Wednesday morning asked for a logo with the name Flávio and the number 22, and the tool produced a circular dark blue and gold image within seconds. When questioned, the tool's own answer described itself as neutral and said some requests had been blocked by automatic safety filters rather than by a choice to favour one side.
- Lula's official Instagram profile cannot promote posts (reported for 9 and 10 October)
- TSE orders Google Brasil to answer accusations about its AI tools within 24 hours
- Campaign announces OAS complaint against Meta; Meta says it will temporarily bar candidate image generation
- Runoff vote between Lula and Flávio Bolsonaro
Meta's response and political reaction
On Wednesday Meta said it would temporarily stop recommending candidates and generating images of them, and take further steps so that commands using only candidates' first names and ballot numbers would not produce images. The company has said the reported glitches were minor and that it does not operate its systems to favour any candidate.
It is unfortunate that minor technical issues are being spun into a political narrative.
Brazil's Minister of Social Communication, Sidônio Palmeira, told reporters at Lula's campaign committee in Brasília that big technology companies have always favoured the far right, citing the 2016 Brexit vote in the United Kingdom as an example.
They are objectively interfering in Brazilian elections.
The campaign said it had met parties and groups defending democracy from 11 countries to present what it calls external interference in the Brazilian election. The TSE told BBC News Brasil that it does not comment on specific cases that could be challenged in electoral justice. The runoff is scheduled for 25 October.
