Minister Dias Toffoli, from the TSE (Superior Electoral Court), defended this Saturday (24), on the eve of the second round, that the Electoral Court create rules to prevent candidates' campaigns from transforming communication channels and political advertisements "into a ring".
In a lecture to representatives from around 45 countries, at the court's headquarters in Brasília, Toffoli stated that one of the main challenges in Brazil for the future, that is, for the next elections, is to make "politics discuss politics again" in a time of polarization.
He did not mention standards that can be implemented to achieve this objective, but said that it is necessary to establish clear parameters in this regard, including to prevent the inappropriate use of technology. According to the rotation order of the TSE presidency, Toffoli must command the court in the 2028 municipal elections.
"It is necessary to distinguish what is a legitimate political action of using these means for propaganda, for the political advertising of programs [...] from what turns out to be dark interference through some type of encouragement or use of robotics", added the judge.
He gave the example of radio and television advertising, which is paid for through tax compensation to broadcasters. "It cannot be paid by Brazilian citizens to hear insults between candidates. If it exists, it can only have a single form of content: propositions", he declared.
"Often, we fail to see and watch propositions, programmatic policies of the government, of the State, of Parliament, whether in the official means of electoral propaganda, as there is in Brazil, free radio and television propaganda, or on social media channels, instead of watching a propositional debate of content, we have been living in this world of polarization, of personal clashes", he stated.
The judge's statements come amid divergent decisions by the TSE regarding the WhatsApp channel "Lula's Army", managed by federal deputy André Janones (Rede-MG) and which is the target of actions by the campaign of presidential candidate Flávio Bolsonaro (PL).
The president of the court, Kassio Nunes Marques, used the administrative power of interlocution with big techs to suspend the group. The decision, later revised, was interpreted as a "overrun" by the inspector general, Ricardo Villas Bôas Cueva, who the day before had denied the request to suspend the channel's operation.
Dias Toffoli praised Kassio's leadership this Saturday in what he classified as a "challenge" of establishing compliance plans with platforms, such as Meta (owner of Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp), X (former Twitter), TikTok, among others.
According to the minister, the networks have acted with respect to the court because they know that they can be punished by being taken off the air. He cited as an example the decision of the STF (Supreme Federal Court) minister Alexandre de Moraes who, in 2024, ordered the X to be taken down after Elon Musk's platform failed to comply with Brazilian court orders.
"It's as simple as that. This is a very great strength that we have in our Electoral Judiciary, which is, at the same time, an agency that regulates and supervises elections."
The second challenge for Brazilian democracy, according to Toffoli, is to increase female participation in politics. To this end, he defended not only the maintenance of the gender quota for these candidacies (currently at least 30%), but also that a reserve of seats be established for women in the National Congress.
Kassio participated in the opening of the event with foreign guests. In a speech, he stated that preliminary reports from national and international observers found no irregularities and confirmed the functioning of the electronic voting machines in the first round.
"The missions also noted that the voting took place, in general, in a calm and organized manner in the locations monitored, with no serious incidents identified in those locations. We received these assessments with gratitude and responsibility. Independent observation strengthens transparency and offers concrete elements for improving our practices," he said.
