The campaign of senator Flávio Bolsonaro (PL-RJ) called the TSE (Superior Electoral Court) to request measures against 48 Instagram profiles that have mobilized support for President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT) on social media.
Among the targets are parliamentarians, left-wing pages and the Mídia Ninja profile.
The senator's legal team accuses the profiles of using, in a coordinated manner, collaborative publications, known as collabs, to expand the reach of false or decontextualized information about Flávio.
The request is for 32 of the identified profiles to be suspended by October 26, one day after the second round. Requests were made against the other 16 profiles to remove publications, prohibit recurrence and monitor these accounts. In total, 221 publications are requested to be removed from Instagram.
None of the parliamentarians' accounts nor Mídia Ninja are among the profiles that were subject to a suspension request.
The petition also requests the temporary blocking of collabs between the 48 profiles, to prevent new joint publications.
Folha contacted President Lula's campaign on Wednesday (14) and the news portal Mídia Ninja this Thursday (15), by email and message, but received no response until the publication of this report.
Names such as federal deputies Gleisi Hoffmann (PT-RS), Paulo Pimenta (PT-RS), Duda Salabert (Psol-MG), Rogério Correia (PT-MG), Pedro Uczai (PT-SC) and Maria do Rosário (PT-RS) appear on the list presented by the PL.
According to the action, the monitoring and verification of recurrences would be carried out by CIEDDE (Integrated Center for Combating Misinformation and Defense of Democracy), of the TSE.
The suspension would be directed at accounts that, according to the campaign, worked in the production or recurring dissemination of content considered misleading. Among the targets are mainly left-wing pages.
At the TSE, the action is reported by the electoral inspector, minister Ricardo Villas Bôas Cueva. In an order given on Monday (12), the minister did not decide on the requests made, but ordered Flávio's campaign to provide clarifications.
In the document, the minister wanted to know which people responsible for the 48 profiles should effectively respond to the investigation, what conduct is attributed to each one and whether the same requests have already been presented in other electoral actions
According to the lawyers, a total of 1,525 profiles linked by collabs on the platform were mapped, which, according to the campaign, subscribe to publications together to increase audiences.
The tool allows the same publication to appear in different users' accounts, as long as each one accepts the invitation to participate. 'It is a conscious adherence to the content and the purpose of multiplying it', says the campaign, which accuses the profiles of disseminating misinformation in an organized manner.
The campaign also identified another 260 profiles that allegedly make up a 'disinformation nucleus'. According to the petition, the accounts in question have around 29 million followers.
The action targeting the profile network cites some examples of publications that, according to the campaign, would be false or out of context information. Part of them concerned the senator's declaration that he would change the Constitution.
'By the following morning, 39 publications signed by 94 different profiles had transformed the speech into a "coup", "dictatorship", "annihilation of women, the poor, black people and LGBTs" and, in the version of the media profile with 5.2 million followers, a threat to the very right to vote: "or it will be the last time you press any other number"', states the piece.
One of the posts cited in the document concerns a video by actress Titi Muller, published on the Mídia Ninja profile. In the video, she spoke directly to the electorate who had voted for candidates such as Renan Santos (Missão) and Augusto Cury (Avante) and said that voters would have to 'press 13', because Flávio had said he would change the Constitution.
The document also talks, for example, about alleged attacks on the integrity of the electoral process, such as criticism of the telecommunications company Starlink, hired by the TSE to transmit election results in the most remote places in the country. The text alleges a 'concrete risk' to the election.
In the action, there is also talk of 'post-first round despair' on the part of the PT's allies. Lula was behind Flávio in the dispute, with 45.16% of valid votes against 47.03% for the senator. As a result, the president's campaign developed a new strategy, focusing on a greater presence on social media.
Flávio's campaign, in the document, links the activities of this network of profiles to Lula's Porta-Voz program, which organizes supporters in WhatsApp groups and distributes digital mobilization missions.
With logic similar to that of the program, the group 'Lula's Army', run by federal deputy André Janones (Rede-MG), has been off the air since Tuesday (13), as determined by the president of the TSE, minister Kassio Nunes Marques. The magistrate accepted a request from Flávio's campaign which claimed, without including proof, that the group propagated fake news.
In addition to the process that targets profiles, the senator's team also filed a lawsuit with the Electoral Court targeting trade unions with the justification that they were acting to promote the re-election of the PT member.
The action accuses unions, trade unions, student organizations and social movements of putting their structures and resources at the service of Lula's re-election campaign. The piece cites as an example the case of the Rio de Janeiro Postal Workers Union, which opened a 'committee' focused on Lula's re-election.
In response, the campaign asks the TSE to speak out and determine the deactivation of the committee and prevent the transfer of money, goods and services from unions to electoral campaign structures.
