The first measure was taken by the electoral propaganda assistant judge of the Regional Electoral Court of Alagoas (TRE-AL), in a representation presented by the Coalition Alagoas Gigante. The decision determined that the candidate's account would be without public access for a period of 24 hours.
The representation originated from a video published on September 22nd on the candidate's profile. The content included a police approach involving employees of the company Ceilurb, contracts maintained with a municipal authority, payments made by the municipal administration and an investigation into the origin and destination of seized money.
One of the points questioned was the use of the image of the minister of the Superior Court of Justice (STJ) Maria Marluce Caldas Bezerra, who is JHC's aunt. According to the representation, the magistrate's image was inserted into a visual composition that brought together photographs, family references, values, payments, cash withdrawals, police operations and other elements presented as part of the narrative.
The publication, however, had already been taken down in compliance with a previous decision, related to a right of reply process. In the new representation, the coalition requested, among other measures, the suspension of the candidate's profile until election day.
Renan Filho's defense appealed to TRE-AL through a writ of mandamus and specifically questioned the full suspension of the profile.
In the most recent decision, electoral judge Natália França Von Sohsten considered that suspending the account for 24 hours could produce broader effects than necessary, as the publication had been withdrawn and there was already an order prohibiting its republication.
According to the judge, there was, at that time, no demonstration that the candidate had failed to comply with the previous order or republished the questioned content. The decision records that the post had been removed on September 24 and that the representative party itself acknowledged compliance with the determination.
The judge also highlighted that the suspension of an entire profile is more comprehensive than the removal of a specific publication. According to her, the block would temporarily prevent the dissemination of other candidate content, including the candidate's agenda, proposals, statements and clarifications that were unrelated to the case analyzed.
The decision also considered the electoral period. According to the judge, although technically the profile could be reactivated after 24 hours, the period of communication lost during the campaign could not be recovered later.
Despite determining the resumption of the profile, the decision did not authorize the republication of the content that motivated the process.
The order to remove the publication remains valid, as does the determination that the candidate not re-establish, republish, share, boost or re-upload the same content or materially identical reproduction. The fines provided for in case of non-compliance were also maintained.
The judge also stated that the decision does not represent authorization for the new use of the image of minister Maria Marluce Caldas Bezerra in a composition that associates her with the police and financial facts investigated without corresponding factual support.
In the provision of the decision, the judge suspended the items of the previous decision that determined the full blocking of the profile for 24 hours and ordered Meta not to implement the suspension or, if it had already been applied, to immediately reestablish public access to the profile, preserving the content of the account.
The decision states, however, that new measures may be adopted if there are new facts, especially any repetition of the conduct or non-compliance with the determinations already imposed.
The judge also clarified that the decision is preliminary and does not represent the definitive judgment on the possible irregularity of the advertising or on the application of an electoral fine. These issues must be analyzed in the original processes, after the adversarial process.
