Brazil's top electoral court has doubled a daily fine against Meta and ordered the US-based social media company to prove within 24 hours that it is treating content from both presidential candidates equally on its platforms.
The Superior Electoral Court (TSE) issued the ruling on Monday, less than a week before Brazilians vote in a presidential run-off between left-wing incumbent Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and right-wing senator Flavio Bolsonaro.
"The continued noncompliance, just a few days before the run-off election, demonstrates that the fine imposed was insufficient," a TSE judge said in the order.
The daily penalty for noncompliance was raised from 500,000 Brazilian reals (approximately $100,000) to one million reals (approximately $200,000).
The court order follows a complaint from Lula's campaign alleging that Meta prevented his profile from being fully promoted on Instagram and from appearing in searches. His campaign has also argued that posts by his supporters are being disproportionately removed by moderators, while content promoting his rival or questioning election integrity is being allowed to remain.
Civil society groups and digital rights monitors have supported those allegations, saying Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp — three platforms operated by Meta — have suppressed content from the left-leaning leader while amplifying posts promoting Bolsonaro.
Meta has denied favouring either candidate. The company has acknowledged, however, that some of Lula's campaign advertisements were temporarily taken offline due to technical errors.
Bolsonaro, the son of an imprisoned former president, performed better than many analysts expected in the first round of voting on October 4. He received 47 percent of the vote, compared with Lula's 45 percent. Neither candidate crossed the 50-percent threshold required to avoid a run-off. Pre-election polling puts the two virtually neck-and-neck ahead of Sunday's vote.
Social media bias has been a point of contention on both sides of Brazil's political divide. Earlier this month, Lula's campaign launched a website to document complaints from supporters about their activities being unfairly restricted on Meta and other platforms.
Several digital rights groups, including the nonprofit CTRL+Z, have published findings suggesting Meta may have given Bolsonaro a disproportionately large presence on its platforms, which many Brazilians use as their primary source of news.
"Brazilian citizens have the right to know why their accounts were banned, why their posts disappeared, why their accounts lost reach, and why they are being prevented from commenting, reposting, and saving content," CTRL+Z wrote on its website. "Meta cannot be the invisible judge of the Brazilian electoral debate."
On Friday, the Brazilian newspaper Folha de S Paulo reported it had reviewed internal messages between Meta employees acknowledging they were aware of inconsistent treatment of Lula and Bolsonaro's social media presence.
Political campaigns in Brazil have dramatically increased their spending on social media platforms, outpacing traditional avenues such as television and street advertising in recent elections, according to Daniela da Silva, executive director of CTRL+Z.
Data collected by the Supreme Electoral Court shows Facebook received more than 200 million reals (approximately $40 million) in revenue during the 2024 municipal elections, ranking first among advertising suppliers for that cycle.
Despite that revenue, da Silva said Meta and other companies were not taking their responsibility toward election fairness seriously. "These are very powerful, wealthy companies, and they do have the capacity to do much more than they are doing," she said.
More than 100 civil society groups, including Greenpeace International, Global Witness and Oxfam Brazil, have joined CTRL+Z in signing a letter calling on Brazilian authorities to enforce rules designed to rein in Meta, and urging the company itself to do more to ensure a fair electoral environment.
