Meta denies favoring Brazil candidates, adopts human ad review

Court response and bias allegations

Meta submitted its formal response to the Superior Electoral Court (TSE) on Tuesday after the Workers' Party (PT) accused the company of restricting President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva's campaign content while favoring Flavio Bolsonaro, according to Brazilian news outlet UOL. The company explicitly denied showing preference for either presidential candidate and urged the court not to impose financial penalties, asserting that it had complied with all previous judicial orders in good faith.

Meta said in its court filing that automated restrictions on campaign advertising accounts will now undergo mandatory human review within a two-hour window through Sunday's runoff vote. This measure addresses concerns that algorithmic enforcement actions could disproportionately impact one campaign over another during the critical final phase of the election.

AI oversight and advertising restrictions

The electoral authority previously ordered adjustments to Meta's artificial intelligence systems following concerns about their capacity to generate election-related content featuring the candidates. Meta reported reviewing 1,204 posts flagged for AI-generated material, removing or blocking 720 for violating electoral labeling requirements while permitting 270 that carried proper disclosures and identifying 214 as non-electoral content.

The company also established a whitelist limiting paid political advertisements exclusively to candidates, parties, coalitions and federations formally registered with the TSE. This restriction aims to prevent unregistered entities from purchasing political ads that could influence the outcome of the contest.

Technical constraints and electoral schedule

Meta explained that architectural limitations within Instagram necessitated disabling recommendations for entire collaborative posts rather than applying restrictions solely to individual candidate profiles. The company characterized this constraint as a technical necessity rather than an intentional bias in content distribution.

Company representatives requested an urgent meeting with TSE officials to resolve outstanding technical issues before the vote. The runoff between Lula and Bolsonaro is scheduled for October 25.