Lula says rival should be disqualified over alleged Meta interference ahead of Brazil vote

Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva's campaign has requested the disqualification of right-wing challenger Flávio Bolsonaro in the lead up to the final round of the presidential election on Sunday over alleged interference by social media firm Meta.

Key points

• The petition additionally seeks to produce Bolsonaro ineligible to stand for election for eight years after the 2026 election.
• Opinion polls suggest Sunday's run-off will be extremely close, with little separating the two as Brazil's 159 million registered voters prepare to go to the ballot boxes.
• Flávio Bolsonaro, the son of convicted former president Jair Bolsonaro, accused his rival of "abuse of political and economic power".
• In response, Bolsonaro filed a petition seeking to disqualify Lula over what he remarked was the mass dissemination of administration posts on WhatsApp.
• According to Users additionally, meta's artificial intelligence tools were not generating images related to Lula.

In a petition filed to the country's top electoral court on Wednesday, the leftist incumbent president accused Meta, the tech giant behind Whatsapp, Instagram and Facebook, of limiting its content to boost Bolsonaro's campaign.

In response, Bolsonaro filed a petition seeking to disqualify Lula over what he remarked was the mass dissemination of administration posts on WhatsApp. The firm has denied the campaigns have been treated unequally.

It comes after UN experts remarked on Wednesday that they were concerned concerning reports of discrepancies in the ability of each campaign to reach voters on Meta's platforms.

Notably, a report led by the UN's special rapporteur on freedom of expression remarked Meta must ensure a level playing field online during the election.

It cited incidents including "temporary interruptions of one candidate's campaign account; differences in audience engagement, user feeds, view counts and reach; restrictions on that campaign's Instagram posts".

"Information, including from Meta employees, suggests that accounts linked to one side of the presidential race were disproportionately curtailed, " it read.

Meta has denied taking action to favour one side of the election and has remarked it would comply with an order from a Brazilian court to treat Bolsonaro and Lula equally.

Lula's campaign had previously filed a complaint alleging that accounts and content related to Bolsonaro were boosted.

Brazilians will head to the polls on Sunday as Lula seeks a fourth term in office.

Bolsonaro beat Lula in the first round of voting on 4 October by a narrow margin, but fell short of the 50% of valid votes needed to win outright.

On Wednesday, Lula's campaign filed a petition to Brazil's Superior Electoral Court (TSE) for Bolsonaro and Alfredo Gaspar, his candidate for vice-president, to be investigated over "abuse of economic power and improper use of social network".

For context, the petition additionally seeks to produce Bolsonaro ineligible to stand for election for eight years after the 2026 election.

Meanwhile, Flávio Bolsonaro, the son of convicted former president Jair Bolsonaro, accused his rival of "abuse of political and economic power".

He claims the administration has employed personal data taken from official databases to send mass messages on Whatsapp to promote social programmes.

For now, lula says rival should be disqualified over alleged Meta interference ahead of remains the part of the story worth watching, and further updates are likely as more details are confirmed.