Lula campaign accuses Meta of election interference in Brazil presidential runoff

The campaign of Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva announced on Wednesday that his party plans to file a formal complaint against tech giant Meta with the Organisation of American States. France 24 English and Free Malaysia Today both report that Lula’s party accuses Meta of election interference. The party alleges that Meta is restricting online content for the leftist leader ahead of the presidential runoff election set for October 25. [1][7]

The campaign alleges that Meta restricted Lula’s online content while benefiting his conservative opponent, Senator Flavio Bolsonaro. In response, Meta told Brazil’s election court that allegations of bias are false, according to The Rio Times. In a court filing submitted to Judge Marco Aurélio Bellizze, the company blamed technical faults and admitted that it briefly shut down the Lula campaign’s ad account by mistake. [1][2][8]

The dispute occurs in the final stages of a closely contested presidential campaign. According to polling data published by The Rio Times, Flavio Bolsonaro leads Lula with 52.2 percent of valid votes to 47.8 percent across an average of ten surveys published since October 5. As FTMQ World reported earlier, Lula is seeking a fourth nonconsecutive term as president against Flavio Bolsonaro, a senator for the Liberal Party and the eldest son of former president Jair Bolsonaro. [1][3][11][12]

The presidential contest will be decided in the second round on October 25 after neither candidate secured more than 50 percent of the vote in the first round on October 4. The winner will lead Latin America's largest economy, which has a nominal gross domestic product of approximately 2.64 trillion dollars as of 2026. [3][10][12]