The campaign of Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, who is seeking reelection, went to Brazil's Superior Electoral Court (TSE) this Saturday. It filed a complaint alleging interference by technology company Meta in favor of his rival, Senator Flávio Bolsonaro.
According to BioBioChile, the campaign also filed a complaint with the National Data Protection Agency, the Brazilian body that oversees the use of personal information. It did so after gathering what it called a series of "pieces of evidence" of alleged favoritism by the US company, which owns Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp.
In a statement, the campaign said that some of Lula's posts this week experienced "interruptions" in view tracking, affecting their reach. It added that since Friday, Meta had prevented the president's official account from promoting content on Instagram, a key tool for any campaign.
According to AFP, cited by T13, the campaign also said that before the first round, Lula's page and those of other left-wing leaders "suddenly disappeared from Instagram search". In its view, the succession of unexplained problems raises "strong suspicions" of an attempt to interfere in the process to benefit Bolsonaro.
The campaign said Meta attributed the problems to "technical failures" that affected other advertisers, but maintained that it had received no evidence of this. "The complete absence of transparency in the company's systems makes those explanations scant and opaque," it said.
Meta's office in Brazil told AFP that "the allegations are simply false and are not supported by the facts". The company said that many of the problems mentioned were not limited to Brazil or specific accounts, and that it complies with electoral rules.
Flávio Bolsonaro is the son of far-right former President Jair Bolsonaro, who governed between 2019 and 2022. In the first round last Sunday, he received 47% of the vote compared with Lula's 45%, a difference of just over two million votes. The left-wing leader is seeking a fourth term.
The complaint adds to Lula's accusations against US President Donald Trump over alleged attempts to interfere in Bolsonaro's favor. His government is assessing whether major technology companies, known as big tech, could serve as a channel for this. Éden Valadares, communications secretary of the Workers' Party, acknowledged to AFP: "We have no evidence of that specific and formal link."
What happens in Brazil has an impact across South America. It is the region's largest economy and one of Chile's main trading partners. The dispute over the power of digital platforms in campaigns is also a subject of debate in other Latin American democracies.
After finishing second, Lula, who does not use a cellphone, launched a strategy focused on social media, with selfie videos and new formats to mobilize those who abstained. The runoff will take place on October 25.
