Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva will face Flávio Bolsonaro in the second round of the Brazil presidential election on 25 October. Lula’s campaign team accused Meta of suppressing posts, blocking AI-generated content, and suspending the campaign's advertising account to favour Bolsonaro.
Meta stated that the suspension of Lula’s account occurred by mistake and lasted for one hour. The company also stated that "claims that we are favoring or interfering on behalf of any candidate or political group are false and unfounded."
Brazil’s electoral prosecutors reported that Meta failed to fully comply with court orders intended to ensure equal treatment for both candidates. United Nations human rights experts expressed concern regarding the possible unequal treatment of the two campaigns.
Lula’s campaign submitted screenshots alleging that Meta AI repeatedly assigned Bolsonaro’s electoral number, 22, to fictional politicians. The campaign further alleged that Meta AI translated the phrase "Flávio futuro presidiário" as "Flávio future president."
Meta’s independent oversight board stated that the company’s election safeguards have failed. Twenty-six Meta advertising accounts appeared to bypass restrictions on foreign-funded political advertising by posting AI-generated videos.
Lupa identified 920 pieces of manipulated or AI-generated election content before the first round, with 60 per cent of those items remaining unlabelled. InternetLab studied how eight major AI chatbots responded to questions about the Brazil election.
The report from InternetLab found that chatbots sometimes refused genuine questions about candidates by referring users to official electoral websites. The same report found that chatbots would agree to draft misleading claims questioning election integrity for use in campaigning.
Lula’s Army currently has 8 million subscribers on its WhatsApp channel.
