Brazil’s top electoral court has penalized Meta’s Facebook 7.5 million reais ($1.3 million) for failing to fully adhere to judicial mandates issued during last month’s presidential election runoff campaign. The ruling comes after the social media giant faced accusations of political bias from the campaign team of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.
Justice Marco Aurélio Bellizze delivered the court's decision, which was accepted unanimously by his fellow magistrates. Bellizze noted that establishing deliberate political bias would require a higher evidentiary bar. “Such a conclusion would require compelling evidence of intent, to be presented in full proceedings through the appropriate legal channels,” he stated in the ruling.
Troubles for Meta began ahead of the runoff vote when Lula’s campaign filed a lawsuit alleging that the tech firm—which owns Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp—used biased algorithms and artificial intelligence restrictions to favor rival candidate Jair Bolsonaro. The claims gained traction among supporters, triggering a protest outside Meta’s corporate offices in Sao Paulo.
Meta pushed back against the allegations in an updated statement issued on Monday prior to the ruling. The company denied any political bias, asserting that it applied “the same rules to every candidate, every party, and every political viewpoint in Brazil, as we do in elections around the world.” Tech representatives informed the court that recent platform disruptions stemmed from unrelated global technical glitches, strict anti-fraud measures, and regulatory compliance, emphasizing that equal treatment measures had been enacted for both political campaigns.
However, Bellizze clarified that despite Meta submitting statements and documentation regarding its operational steps, the company failed to follow certain court orders or fulfilled them late and incompletely. According to a statement from the electoral court, the fine covers the defendant's overall conduct regarding the judicial mandates, citing delays, incomplete disclosures, and difficulties in verifying specific data.
The financial penalty was calculated based on three days of daily fines set at 500,000 reais ($90,000) between Oct. 17 and Oct. 19, followed by six days of daily fines at 1 million reais ($180,000) from Oct. 20 through Oct. 25. Lula ultimately won the presidential runoff by more than 4.4 million votes after coming from behind in the initial voting round, a reversal attributed by political analysts to massive online and street mobilization by his movement.
