Lula asks Brazil's electoral court to annul Flávio Bolsonaro's candidacy over Meta

President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva's re-election campaign on Wednesday, October 21, 2026 asked Brazil's Superior Electoral Court (TSE) to annul the candidacy of his run-off rival, Senator Flávio Bolsonaro, accusing Meta and X of tilting their platforms in his favour. The request, filed four days before Sunday's second round, also asks the court to ban Bolsonaro and his running mate from public office for eight years — a mirror image of a case Bolsonaro's party has already brought against Lula.

What the Lula campaign is asking for

The campaign filed what Brazilian law calls an Electoral Judicial Investigation Action (AIJE), alleging abuse of economic power and improper use of social media under Article 22 of Complementary Law 64/1990, and asked for urgent measures.

Request	Detail
Annul candidacy	Flávio Bolsonaro (Liberal Party)
Ineligibility	Bolsonaro and running mate Alfredo Gaspar de Mendonça, for eight years after the 2026 election
Orders to platforms	Demands addressed to Meta (Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp) and X
Legal grounds	Abuse of economic power; improper use of social media

The complaint argues that recommendation systems, generative AI tools and ad-review processes repeatedly worked for Bolsonaro and against Lula. Among the claims in the filing:

• Bolsonaro's official profile, with about 17% fewer followers than Lula's, drew almost three times as many interactions per post in the first week of the run-off campaign.
• Lula's advertising account was restricted in the days before the first round.
• Meta's AI image tool produced content for "Flávio 22" — his ballot number — but refused the same request for "Lula 13".
• Paid ads approved from the United States included an AI-generated image of US President Donald Trump urging Brazilians to vote for Bolsonaro.

The campaign also describes what it calls a "synthetic content farm" pushing pro-Bolsonaro material outside the rules on campaign accountability.

Bolsonaro's case against Lula

Bolsonaro's side moved first. The Liberal Party had already asked the TSE to annul Lula's candidacy for "abuse of power", accusing the government of using data from the Gov.br portal, the social security institute (INSS) and the federal tax service to send personalised messages to citizens about social programmes, fuel and electricity costs and medicine purchases during the election period. It argues that no opposition candidate has access to such tools, and points to a government contract with the federal data service SERPRO worth about 20.4 million reais a year, covering an estimated 170 million notifications a month.

Background: the court's fight with Meta

The dispute builds on more than a week of clashes between the electoral court and Meta. On October 15, TSE Justice Marco Aurélio Bellizze ordered the company to give both candidates strictly equal treatment, including identical criteria for its automated and AI systems, with a daily fine of 500,000 reais for non-compliance. On Monday, October 19, he found continued non-compliance, doubled the fine to 1 million reais (about $200,000) a day and gave Meta 24 hours to prove it was obeying. "The continued non-compliance, just a few days before the run-off election, demonstrates that the fine imposed was insufficient," the judge wrote.

Meta denies favouring either side. It said some of Lula's ads had been switched off by mistake because of technical errors that were not limited to Brazil, and on Tuesday said it had "completed the implementation" of the court's measures, listing 17 steps, including a temporary halt to AI image generation and recommendations for presidential candidates. Meta's own advisory council, however, voiced concern about "recurrent" errors in protecting election integrity.

Why it matters

Brazil's run-off is one of the closest in its recent history. Flávio Bolsonaro — the eldest son of former president Jair Bolsonaro, who is barred from running — won about 47% of the first-round vote to Lula's 45%, and polls describe the second round as a technical tie. Legal fights over social media could shape how either side reacts to the result, especially if the margin is narrow. The case also tests how far a national court can force global platforms to change their algorithms during an election — a question regulators in Europe, India and elsewhere are watching closely.

Investigations of this kind usually take weeks or months, and an annulment before Sunday's vote is considered unlikely. A ruling after the election could, in theory, affect the winner's right to take office.

What happens next

Date	Event
Thursday–Friday, Oct 22–23	TSE may act on urgent requests; final campaign events
Sunday, October 25	Presidential run-off between Lula and Flávio Bolsonaro
After the vote	TSE investigations into both campaigns continue
January 1, 2027	New presidential term begins

The electoral court has not yet ruled on either side's request. Voting is compulsory in Brazil for citizens aged 18 to 70, and results are normally known within hours of polls closing thanks to electronic voting machines.