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NEW YORK Sunday, October 11, 2026

Latin America

Meta faces election interference claims from Brazil's Lula campaign

Brazilian court orders Meta to explain alleged restrictions on Lula's social media content.

New York Editorial News Desk October 11, 2026 1 min read

The Brief

  • Lula's campaign alleges Meta restricted content distribution on its platforms.
  • Brazilian court gives Meta 48 hours to clarify if it limited campaign post reach.
  • Meta denies the allegations, calling them 'false' and 'not supported by facts.'

Brazil's campaign for President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva accused Meta, the parent company of WhatsApp, Instagram, and Facebook, of election interference on Saturday, according to a report by the news agency AFP.

The campaign alleged that Meta's platforms restricted the distribution of Lula's content, including preventing his profile from promoting Instagram feed posts and causing interruptions in view counts for his official account posts.

The campaign also claimed that Lula's and other leftist leaders' profiles suddenly disappeared from Instagram's search function before the first round of voting last Sunday.

Lula's campaign filed a complaint with Brazil's Superior Electoral Court (TSE), which ordered Meta to explain within 48 hours whether it restricted the reach of campaign posts.

The court requested that Meta detail profile-level measures applied to Lula's official accounts and explain the irregularities reported, including anomalies in video metrics.

Meta's Brazil office denied the allegations, stating the claims are 'simply false' and 'not supported by the facts.' The company also noted that many of the technical issues mentioned did not affect only Brazil or specific accounts.

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