Meta staff said Lula accounts were restricted in Brazil vote

Internal Meta messages reported by a Brazilian daily acknowledged that President Lula's Instagram accounts were hurt by restrictions during the election, a day after an electoral court judge ordered the company to treat both runoff candidates equally.

Why it matters: The report lands nine days before the October 25 runoff between Lula and Senator Flavio Bolsonaro, and Meta, which denies favouring either side, now faces a daily fine of 500,000 reais if it fails to comply with the court order.

Data as of Al Jazeera report published October 16, 2026, opened and read in full; it relays internal messages reviewed by the Brazilian daily Folha de S.Paulo, which this run did not read directly, and a Meta statement given to Reuters. Single reporting chain for the internal messages, hence grade C. Developing item, 2 to 3 sentences by design.

Employees at Meta acknowledged in internal communications that the Instagram accounts of Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva were negatively affected by restrictions during the country’s election, according to messages reviewed by the daily Folha de S.Paulo and reported on Friday by Al Jazeera. The messages also acknowledged that the platform recommended the profile of Lula’s challenger, Senator Flavio Bolsonaro, and his WhatsApp channel, while Meta told Reuters the technical issues were already public, related only to severity discussions, and denied favouring either side.

The report followed a ruling on Thursday by Justice Marco Aurelio Bellizze of Brazil’s top electoral court, made after Lula complained of biased algorithms, ordering Meta not to reduce political content distribution or restrict searches in ways that imbalance the two candidacies, with a fine of 500,000 reais, about 98,700 dollars, per day for non-compliance. Lula and Bolsonaro meet in a presidential runoff on October 25.

Meta staff said Lula accounts were restricted in Brazil vote

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