After Lula, Flávio Bolsonaro says he is harmed by Meta and asks TSE to prohibit the promotion of negative posts

The campaign of presidential candidate Flávio Bolsonaro (PL) sued the Superior Electoral Court (TSE) this Friday (16) arguing that it has been harmed by Meta, the big tech responsible for Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp.

According to the campaign, "in the second round, it is Flávio's candidacy that has been suffering, on a much greater scale, from the paid distribution of negative advertising", despite the legislation prohibiting the promotion of negative content on social networks.

For Flávio's lawyers, Meta has not been fulfilling its duty to avoid negative paid advertising.

"Meta's negligence is turning the life of Flávio's campaign and the Superior Electoral Court into an eternal and unacceptable dry spell", say the lawyers.

Flavio Bolsonaro fulfills agenda in the Lagos Region and North Fluminense — Photo: Ludmila Lopes

The PL candidate's campaign sued the TSE in the same lawsuit filed last Wednesday (14) by President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT) against Meta. Flávio asked the TSE to join that process, which has already had a favorable decision for Lula, as an interested third party.

Flávio's lawyers claim that there is "a spill of negative content illicitly driven by Lula's official page", in addition to a "spill of more negative content due to illegal boosts made by ghost pages, individuals (who cannot boost) and legal entities (unions and left-wing blogs, for example)".

In the document, the campaign team presents to the TSE several numerical surveys and examples of posts that it considers irregular and that had a large reach.

In the end, Flávio's lawyers ask, among other measures, that:

the Meta is determined that, until the end of the second round, it prevents individuals and legal entities that are not candidates, parties, federations or coalitions from hiring boosters, because the law does not authorize hiring by third parties;

the Meta is determined to prevent, including candidates and parties, paid promotion of content with "notoriously untrue" or "severely out of context" facts;

Meta is ordered to "refrain from approving and promoting negative propaganda against any of the candidates competing in the second round", suspending, within 24 hours, advertisements of this type that are being broadcast.

Requests will be analyzed by TSE minister Marco Aurélio Bellizze.

What the Meta says

This Friday (16), after the TSE determined that Meta does not interfere in the distribution of political-electoral content for either Lula or Flávio, the company stated that it "does not take sides in this or any other election".

"Our systems do not classify or distribute content based on political ideology, and our rules and their application apply equally to everyone," he declared in a statement.