Brazil's electoral court intervenes against tech giants - suspected of favoring Bolsonaro

The court requires technical explanations about how Instagram, Facebook and Whatsapp, as well as Elon Musk's platform X, spread political content and use artificial intelligence. According to Lula's election campaign, Flávio Bolsonaro's posts have been more widespread, while the president's own posts have had a limited reach.

The suspicions are strengthened by the fact that Brazil's largest daily Folha de S. Paulo has read internal messages at Meta. In them, employees admit that restrictions led to Lula's campaign being disadvantaged on social media. One of the employees writes that Lula's account was "restricted", while Flávio Bolsonaro's had no restrictions at all.

Meta denies that the company has intervened in the election to favor any of the candidates, but admits that "technical flaws had extensive consequences and affected various accounts and advertisers". The data has fallen like a bomb in Brazil, which on Sunday goes to one of its most dramatic elections.

Lula's lawyers claim in their application to the electoral court that Meta's recommendation system and ad review have made it easier for Flávio Bolsonaro to reach out. They also believe that Meta's AI tool refused to create election propaganda for Lula, but did so for Flávio Bolsonaro, who is the son of former president Jair Bolsonaro, who is under house arrest sentenced to 27 years in prison for attempted coup d'état.

Platform X has previously found itself in conflict with the Brazilian justice system. Two years ago, the Supreme Court ordered the platform to be shut down in the country, because it had not removed fake accounts used by the Bolsonaro family to claim that Lula won the 2022 elections through vote fraud. The court sentenced the company to pay SEK 55 million in fines. The owner Elon Musk then called one of the judges "a tyrant who is Lula's lap dog".

Multibillionaire Musk is close to Donald Trump's political movement, which wholeheartedly supports the Bolsonaro family's attempt to regain power in the southern hemisphere's largest country. If it turns out that Musk and Meta have lied in the election, the electoral court can invalidate Flávio Bolsonaro's candidacy. Lula's lawyers have already requested that. They believe that Lula was subjected to "algorithmic manipulation".

Nine independent human rights experts at the UN have also demanded in a letter that Meta explain why Lula's campaign is suspected of having been disadvantaged.

"Digital platforms play a central role in the democratic debate. Without explanation preventing people from expressing themselves or reaching out to an audience affects which voices are heard," the experts write, adding:

"Losing reach can mean losing one's voice in public debate and the ability to mobilize people. Algorithms, AI systems and content moderation must not become invisible judges of political debate."

Lula lost the first round of elections three weeks ago by two percentage points, but despite suspected manipulation has brought home Flávio Bolsonaro's lead. The latest opinion poll from Datafolha shows that the candidates are now evenly matched before the decisive election round.

- What we see now is that Lula is slowly increasing his support. The trend is clear, while Flávio Bolsonaro has stagnated, says Augusto Coutinho, from the center-right party Republicanos to Folha de S. Paulo.