Brazil’s Lula accuses Meta of favoring rival ahead of presidential runoff

Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva has accused the US technology company Meta of unfairly benefiting his right-wing rival, Flavio Bolsonaro, ahead of a closely contested presidential runoff, according to The New York Times on Thursday.

Lula’s campaign and independent watchdog groups allege that Meta’s platforms, including Facebook and Instagram, have restricted the visibility of progressive content while allowing material supporting Bolsonaro to circulate more freely.

The president’s campaign filed a complaint with Brazil’s electoral court on Saturday, demanding equal treatment online as the race enters its final stretch before the Oct. 25 runoff.

The complaint accused Meta of “algorithmic selectivity” during the presidential contest, arguing that videos critical of Bolsonaro were removed without explanation, searches failed to display progressive activists and posts praising Lula reached fewer users.

Meta has rejected allegations of political bias, saying it does not operate its systems to harm or favor any candidate. The company attributed some of the reported incidents to technical glitches and unintended errors, dismissing independent findings as anecdotal and difficult to verify.

“It is unfortunate that minor technical issues are being spun into a political narrative,” Meta said in a statement.

Lula’s campaign also cited a report by international watchdog Eko, which found that Meta approved political advertisements containing artificial intelligence-generated disinformation and deepfakes, although the ads were ultimately not published.

Some of the material reportedly included fabricated images of Brazil’s electoral court announcing a new election date and manipulated videos falsely showing US President Donald Trump endorsing Bolsonaro.

Meta said its safeguards would have flagged and blocked the advertisements before they reached voters.

Separately, Brazilian nonprofit CTRL + Z reported identifying 1,088 cases involving electoral censorship, account bans and reduced content visibility on Meta platforms. The group said content supporting Lula was disproportionately affected.