Lula government suggests the MPF take action against Meta due to lack of transparency in content moderation

The Lula (PT) government recommended that the PFDC (Federal Prosecutor's Office for Citizens' Rights) immediately file a public civil action against Meta, which controls Facebook, WhatsApp and Instagram, due to the lack of transparency in content moderation during the elections.

In a technical note signed this Saturday (17), the National Secretariat for Digital Rights, of the Ministry of Justice, states that "Meta's moderation criteria operate without transparency for the user and without observability for the authority".

The document mentions information raised by civil society organizations as evidence of opacity in content moderation, in addition to a Folha report revealing that Meta employees admit, in internal messages, that restrictions on content harmed the accounts of the PT candidate for President.

The government document also suggests that the MPF ask the Court to force Meta to reestablish, within 15 days, the accounts, publications and functionalities that were limited without a "specific basis", subject to a daily fine of R$500,000 in case of non-compliance.

It also recommends, on a preliminary basis (before analyzing the merits of the action), that it seek to cease the suspension of accounts and restrictions on the scope of content without prior human review involving journalistic outlets, civil society organizations, social movements and student entities.

More broadly and not immediately, the government's recommendation is that the action asks the Court to define that Meta must provide an individual basis for its moderation decisions, in addition to maintaining a challenge procedure and submitting cases to "qualified human" review. For the merits request, the recommendation is also to seek that the company adopt measures to prohibit the hiring of advertisements and promotions with illicit content.

In a statement released on Friday (16), Meta stated that it is not interfering in the Brazilian elections and said that the episodes reported in Folha's report were "technical incidents".

The government document, signed by secretary Victor Oliveira Fernandes, was addressed to the procedure opened by the PFDC to investigate the taking down of profiles and disproportionate restrictions on content about elections on the Meta and X networks, formerly Twitter.

The secretary also stated that reports of undue moderation and lack of transparency of content have been mounting, and that the representation that gave rise to the Public Prosecutor's Office procedure was "one of at least nine pieces presented to six authorities in thirteen days, all about Meta's conduct during the electoral period".

"On October 16, 2026, two new facts motivated this demonstration. The first is the report by Patrícia Campos Mello, in Folha de S.Paulo, based on internal messages from Meta obtained by the newspaper", stated Fernandes.

"The second is the open letter published by CTRL+Z, signed by civil society organizations from 25 countries, which asks the Brazilian authorities to end arbitrary moderation and motivated and appealable decisions", the document also says.

All reports point to at least six flaws in moderation, says the secretary, such as lack of specific motivation, lack of contextual analysis, failure to curb the abusive use of reporting tools, invisible restrictions on the reach of content, approval of illicit advertisements and insufficient responses to authorities.

The government also states that Meta has not yet responded to the questions raised following the CTRL+Z complaint. He also said that the company attributed the episodes to "distinct and generic causes", in responses given to the press.