Meta’s explanations for several technical problems during Brazil’s 2026 campaign did not address why Flávio Bolsonaro’s Instagram and WhatsApp channels received recommendations, the Associated Press reported. Separately, El País, citing Folha de S.Paulo’s reporting on internal messages, described restrictions affecting Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva’s accounts alongside recommendations favoring Flávio Bolsonaro.
Meta described separate account and Instagram problems
Meta said it mistakenly deactivated Lula’s campaign advertising account on September 23 for a little over an hour. The company said an ad had been flagged as a possible attempt to impersonate a Brazilian government social program, according to EFE’s report of Meta’s acknowledgment.
That account deactivation was separate from other problems Meta described to the AP. Earlier in October, Meta said an Instagram Reels view-count freeze affected more than 100 countries, while content distribution continued normally. The company also described a separate tool issue that disrupted ad creation from existing Instagram posts for one day, the AP reported.
El País also reported that Lula’s official Instagram account could not promote feed posts on October 9 for almost 24 hours. Campaign administrators estimated that nearly 1.3 million people missed the ads. The same El País account attributed its description of internal messages to reporting by Folha de S.Paulo.
Meta’s explanation for image-generation failures
Meta attributed some uneven results from Meta AI image requests to a loophole involving generic first names combined with electoral numbers, the AP reported. The issue reportedly blocked some requests for images supporting Lula while allowing requests for Flávio Bolsonaro for another day. That explanation concerned image generation; it did not address the separate recommendations reported for Bolsonaro’s Instagram and WhatsApp channels.
Recommendations and the electoral court’s order
El País, citing Folha de S.Paulo, reported that internal messages described restrictions affecting Lula’s accounts while recommendations favored Flávio Bolsonaro. AP reported that Meta did not explain why Bolsonaro’s Instagram and WhatsApp channels received algorithmic recommendations.
On October 15, a judge on Brazil’s Superior Electoral Court (TSE) ordered Meta to treat Lula and Flávio Bolsonaro equally ahead of the runoff scheduled for October 25. AP reported a potential fine of 500,000 reais per day for noncompliance. Judge Marco Aurélio Bellizze said the evidence then available was insufficient to conclude that Meta had deliberately manipulated distribution to benefit or harm either campaign, EFE reported.
