Digital models modified Flávio Bolsonaro’s event photography to artificially expand audiences and simulate support from female voters.

The Brazilian presidential election has become an arena for modern, dirty digital tactics. Senator Flávio Bolsonaro, representing the Liberal Party (PL), has centered his campaign strategy around coordinated digital reach and automated content production.

RELATED: UN Experts Raise Concerns Over Meta’s Handling of Political Expression During Brazil Elections

Rather than working as a traditional political campaign of physical rallies, the operation relies heavily on digital distribution infrastructure across social media platforms.

Flávio’s strategy operates through two main mechanisms. First, the campaign uses synthetic consensus tools, automated social media accounts, AI image generation, and digital avatars to simulate organic public backing.

Second, the campaign benefits from algorithmic distribution asymmetries on digital platforms, which amplify far-right material while placing system restrictions on competing political content.

Collected evidence by independent researchers, journalism networks, and electoral authorities indicates that systemic digital manipulation and platform-level infrastructure played a decisive role in shaping voter perception and electoral engagement in Brazil.

Industrial Bot Networks

A core component of Flávio Bolsonaro’s digital strategy involves the commercial purchase of automated networks designed to manufacture artificial public support.

An investigation by The Intercept Brazil revealed that Flávio Bolsonaro paid Elytron, a cybersecurity firm, to carry out data collection and voter identification to spread rumors and create fake accounts.

These automated tools operate primarily across WhatsApp, Instagram, and X, generating synchronized posts and artificial engagement to bypass standard organic distribution patterns.

This infrastructure uses astroturfing techniques to alter online public discourse. By deploying thousands of automated accounts programmed to post identical messaging scripts, the campaign artificially inflates engagement metrics, pushes specific political hashtags into regional trending lists, and floods comment sections on public news pages.

This creates a false impression of widespread popular momentum, designed to sway undecided voters through perceived consensus.

Technical evaluations submitted during electoral court proceedings reveal the scope of these automated operations. Data presented to electoral monitors shows coordinated account clusters posting at frequencies humanly impossible without software automation.

Deepfakes, AI Avatars, Demographic Manipulation

Various social organizations and media outlets have denounced the deployment of AI image and video generation tools as another facet of Flávio Bolsonaro’s digital strategy.

A prominent example occurred during campaign launch events, where the campaign broadcast an AI-generated digital avatar of former president Jair Bolsonaro endorsing his son’s candidacy. This technique allowed the campaign to maintain the political presence of the former president Bolsonaro in public events despite judicial rulings restricting his direct participation in political activities.

In addition, the campaign used AI tools to manipulate visual documentation of campaign gatherings. Documented instances show event photography processed through image generation models to alter crowd compositions.

These AI modifications included scaling up crowd sizes to exaggerate physical attendance and digitally swapping male attendees with female faces. The primary objective of this demographic engineering was to simulate broader support among female voters, a demographic group where polling data consistently showed lower support for the candidate.

An investigation by a Brazilian media outlet identified more than 50 TikTok videos altered using AI, specifically on-the-street interviews in which subjects claimed they would vote for Flávio Bolsonaro. These videos garnered over 7 million views, yet in only 18% of them did the platform indicate that the individuals featured were AI-generated.

While Brazilian law prohibits the use of AI-generated videos in political campaigns, it is difficult to determine when such content is created by third parties with no direct affiliation to the campaigns.

Disinformation and Aggressive Public Discourse

Flávio Bolsonaro’s public communications strategy relies heavily on coordinated attack campaigns directed against President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and the Workers’ Party (PT).

The Flávio campaign’s public messaging routinely utilizes sensationalist allegations and targeted attacks. Online networks affiliated with the campaign circulate manufactured claims regarding public safety, economic stability, and social values, framing the current administration in terms of moral crisis.

On Sunday the 18th, the public debate between the two candidates took place, and Flávio Bolsonaro spent most of his time attacking Lula during his turns to speak.

Throughout the debate, Flávio was sarcastic and mocking toward President Lula; he attempted to intimidate him physically, to which Lula responded by moving away, stating that he did not want to be near either Flávio or the Bolsonaro family.

Furthermore, when the discussion turned to public safety, Flávio claimed that Lula is the preferred candidate of organized crime, pointing out that Lula received a large number of votes from within the country’s prisons. Lula replied, “I want 100% of them to vote for me -even your father,” a reference to the fact that Jair Bolsonaro is currently incarcerated.

This aggressive messaging strategy directly impacts the broader political environment. By flooding public discourse with inflammatory claims, the campaign creates heightened polarization, distracts from substantive legislative evaluations, and systematically delegitimizes established democratic processes and electoral monitoring bodies.

Meta’s Structural Bias in the Campaign

The Brazilian presidential race was shaped by asymmetries within Meta’s platforms, including Instagram, WhatsApp, and Facebook.

Filings submitted to the Superior Electoral Court (TSE, in Spanish) by President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva’s legal team documented clear disparities in how content from both campaigns was handled by the different platforms.

A primary issue involved Meta’s generative AI features. When users requested campaign materials incorporating Lula’s official ballot number, 13, the system repeatedly rejected the prompts, citing political content restrictions. Conversely, identical requests containing Flávio Bolsonaro’s candidate number, 22, were routinely processed, generating promotional material for the far-right campaign.

In other instances, the AI tool inserted Bolsonaro’s electoral number into completely unrelated image requests. Following formal complaints, the Superior Electoral Court ordered Meta to ensure equal treatment. Meta attributed these outcomes to technical errors and implemented broad restrictions on political image generation.

Internal Meta communications revealed that technical errors caused Lula’s official Instagram profile to be excluded from platform search results and recommendation engines, while Flávio Bolsonaro’s profile remained fully discoverable and actively recommended to users. Furthermore, internal technical escalations confirmed that temporary account restrictions had hindered the reach of Lula’s messaging assets.

Regulatory Imperatives and Popular Sovereignty

The execution of Flávio Bolsonaro’s digital presidential campaign illustrates the evolving mechanics of far-right electoral operations.

By combining commercial bot procurement, generative AI deepfakes, coordinated public attacks, and platform-level algorithmic advantages, the campaign constructed a heavily synthetic media environment designed to influence voter perception.

These developments underscore the limitations of existing legal and regulatory frameworks in addressing digital campaign manipulation. While judicial interventions by the Superior Electoral Court forced technical corrections, reactive oversight remains insufficient to counteract real-time automated suppression and algorithmic imbalance.

Protecting democratic processes requires structural regulatory reform, including mandatory algorithmic transparency, strict auditing of generative AI systems, and clear accountability standards for global technology corporations operating within national borders.

Exposing the mechanics of digital manipulation through independent research and data-driven journalism remains essential to safeguarding electoral integrity against automated distortion and platform bias.

Sources: Brasil de Fato – Agência Brasil – Gov.br – O Globo – Folha de S.Paulo – O Estado de S.Paulo – El País – CNN Brasil – EFE – Instituto Tricontinental – La Base América Latina – Diario Red – The Intercept – El Salto

• Meta established a new class of stock to ensure Mark Zuckerberg stayed as CEO.
• The stock class will "continue the founder-led model that has driven the company," Meta said in its third-quarter earnings.
• Zuckerberg has taken a leading position in Meta's AI era.

Meta's board wants Mark Zuckerberg to stick around.

The company announced a new category of non-voting Class C stock in its third-quarter earnings report. It listed several reasons for creating the new class — one of which is to keep the CEO in control.

A Special Committee established by Meta's board determined that Zuckerberg was the best fit to lead the company into its future, and highlighted the CEO's creative vision and management abilities.

"The creation of the Class C common stock will continue the founder-led model that has driven the company's success since its inception," Meta said.

The stock class will also provide Meta the ability to finance its growth, the earnings report said. Meta is spending big on AI and the data centers needed to power it. The company reported $34.91 billion in third-quarter capital expenditures.

Meta's press release said the distribution would effectively amount to a two-for-one stock split for existing shareholders. Susan Li, Meta's chief financial officer, said that the stock will be distributed to existing shareholders.

Other tech companies have issued stock to access new capital without diluting their CEO's voting power. Google performed a stock split in 2012 for a similar reason. Semafor was first to report the new stock class.

Zuckerberg has long been the face of Meta. He's strengthened his leadership through the AI boom, going "startup mode" and getting hands-on with the tech. The company's AI team set up their desks around where Zuckerberg sits.

The success of Muse, Meta's AI agent, has raised the profile of another Meta executive: Alexandr Wang. The chief AI officer has joined Zuckerberg for podcasts and spoken onstage at keynotes.

A Financial Times profile last week touted Wang as a "potential successor to Zuckerberg." It's clear the board wants Zuckerberg there for the long haul.

• Meta's AI agent, Muse, is unprofitable due to "very high compute costs," CEO Mark Zuckerberg says.
• Meanwhile, Meta expects Reality Labs, its AI glasses division, to lose $15 billion next year.
• The social media giant has a plan to fix that.

Meta says some of its biggest cash incinerators could finally start turning profits.

The social media giant, which generated over 97% of its quarterly revenue from ads, has faced persistent questions from investors about the lack of profitability in its AI and hardware initiatives.

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg addressed those concerns head-on during its third-quarter earnings call on Wednesday.

Zuckerberg said that Muse, the AI assistant it launched last month, is unprofitable since it's "very compute intensive to run." Meta expects to start turning that around next year by massively improving Muse's efficiency.

"If compute efficiency continues improving quickly for another few years, which we think is highly likely, then Muse will be highly profitable over multiple years," he said.

Meta plans to make money from Muse by taking a small transaction fee off of purchases it drives, Zuckerberg said at Meta's Connect conference last month.

Zuckerberg added that Muse, which launched only in the US and Canada, wasn't launched globally due in part to the amount of compute it requires. (Meta's North American users are generally its most lucrative.)

Zuckerberg also struck a positive note about its cash-hemorrhaging Reality Labs division, which makes products like Meta Ray-Bans and virtual reality glasses.

Meta expects Reality Labs to narrow its losses to about $15 billion in 2027, down from the $18 to $19 billion it expects to lose this year. The division should start trending toward profitability next year, as Meta's AI systems make it more useful, Zuckerberg said.

"I continue to believe that the path to delivering holographic experience, of bringing together the physical and digital worlds and everyday glasses, will come through VR first," Zuckerberg said.

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• Anthropic has its answer to AI agents like Meta's Muse and OpenAI's Dots.
• Claude Duet, built on Anthropic's flagship model, has entered the personal agent frenzy.
• Karan Ahuja, a recent departee from Meta, led Claude Duet's development.

Anthropic is joining the personal AI agent craze.

The company announced the new app Claude Duet on Wednesday, billed as a "proactive agent" that can run in the background, surface tasks to a user, and handle a variety of work. The tool is in research preview for now with a waitlist, meaning it won't immediately compete for the larger market with other new agents like Meta's Muse and OpenAI's Dots.

Still, the announcement ramps up the pressure on those companies — Anthropic says it built Duet around its flagship Opus 5.5 model, which was released in late September and has already become one of the industry's most popular. Recent model breakthroughs have made AI better at handling work on its own, spurring a rush to build these "always-on" personal agents.

"It can have the discernment and judgment around when to be proactive, when to act on your behalf," said Mike Krieger, a co-lead of Anthropic's Labs team, said in a Duet launch video.

The tool, Anthropic says, will send users a brief each morning about what's happening on their connected apps, and message them when something needs attention. Like other companies' offerings, it runs outside a user's computer, sends notifications, and asks for approval on certain tasks.

Anthropic announced Duet on the day of Meta's earnings report and used the opportunity to mention a new poach from Mark Zuckerberg's company. Karan Ahuja led product management for Meta Superintelligence Labs until July, according to his LinkedIn, before starting at Anthropic in August and leading Duet's development.

He wrote on X that he's been using Duet to build Duet, and said the team "built it for professionals and small business owners juggling a lot at work and at home."

Ahuja also wrote that Anthropic is letting people into Duet from the waitlist "as quickly as possible."

The news didn't go unnoticed at Meta. Alexandr Wang, who heads Meta Superintelligence Labs, posted a meme about Duet's similarity to Muse.

Anthropic is fast approaching a giant initial public offering, which could value the company at as much as $2 trillion. Like other AI players, the company navigates a high-wire competition to win over users, secure computing power, build state-of-the-art models, and deliver AI-native products.

The data firm Apptopia estimates that Muse had more than 14 million installations as of Wednesday. It found that Claude users who installed the Muse app were using Claude more than before, though still for fewer minutes per day than they spent on the Meta product.

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• Meta spent $34.91 billion in capital expenditures in its third quarter.
• The company is spending big on data centers and other infrastructure for its AI development.
• Meta predicted $135-145 billion in capex for 2026, aligning with analyst expectations.

Meta is making it rain for AI.

The company spent $34.91 billion in capital expenditures during the third quarter of 2026. That's up from the second quarter's sum, $31.08 billion.

For the year 2026, Meta said it expects to spend between $135-145 billion in capital expenditures, narrowed from its prediction of $130-145 billion last quarter.

Meta's forecast includes the yearly capex prediction that analysts expected: $139.79 billion.

As Meta bets big on AI, it is investing heavily in its development. It has built massive, costly data centers and spent big on computing power.

The spending uptick was expected. On the "Cheeky Pint" podcast earlier this month, CEO Mark Zuckerberg recounted early conversations about the investment — and said he'd bet up to $200 billion on AI, before he knew the models would work.

Investors haven't loved Meta's massive capex forecasts in past quarters. The stock tumbled almost 10% last quarter after earnings per share missed Wall Street estimates, and sank 6% the quarter before on raised capex guidance.

This quarter, Meta has a new hero product: Muse.

The AI assistant has reached over 2 million daily users and 3 million downloads. It quickly scaled the App Store. Muse users told Business Insider they chatted with it to help plan trips and ace exams.

The energy around the company is ebullient, as Alexandr Wang, Meta's chief AI officer, continues to post memes of Muse's squishy-looking mascot.

At Meta's Connect keynote event in September, Zuckerberg said Muse "has a novel business model."

"We believe that Muse will make you money, and we're standing behind this by making Muse free for a huge number of tokens with the expectation that over time, we will profit by taking a small fee from transactions," he said.

Muse could help justify the capex guidance for some investors. The stock was trading up 4.12% after-hours at the time of publication.

Eles disseram que os observadores internacionais que participaram das eleições detectaram tratamento desigual das plataformas em relação aos conteúdos das campanhas, apontando que as contas ligadas a um dos candidatos foi prejudicada.

Notícias relacionadas:

• Ato em São Paulo cobra neutralidade da Meta nas eleições.
• Ao TSE, Meta nega tratamento desigual entre candidaturas presidenciais.
• TSE decide manter ordem para Meta garantir isonomia a candidatos.

Eles também citaram que milhares de contas e perfis de influenciadores, jornalistas e criadores de conteúdo foram suspensos, quase todos do mesmo lado político.

NetLab

Um carta do NetLab também questiona a derrubada de um perfil do candidato Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva sob a alegação de controle contra notícias falsas ligadas à políticas públicas pela Meta, enquanto a empresa mantém perfis com publicações com fake news.

O documento também diz que o laboratório identificou falhas da empresa de tecnologia, que teria permitido “propaganda eleitoral paga no exterior e vendido e veiculado durante o resguardo eleitoral”.

O NetLab é um laboratório de pesquisas sobre internet e redes sociais ligado à Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ).

Caso do WhatsApp

Na semana passada, a campanha do candidato à reeleição Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT) entrou com uma ação no Tribunal Superior Eleitoral (TSE) depois que usuários do WhatsApp relataram que a inteligência artificial do aplicativo se recusava a produzir imagens com a palavra “Lula” e o número “13”, mas produzia conteúdo normalmente com a palavra “Flávio” e o número ”22”.

Os advogados da campanha afirmaram que a Meta praticou “seletividade algorítmica” para beneficiar Flávio Bolsonaro, candidato do PL.

Outro lado

Sobre a nota da ONU, a Meta respondeu que as pessoas podem se expressar livremente em seus aplicativos, sem tratamento preferencial a qualquer posicionamento político. “Incidentes técnicos podem ocorrer em uma plataforma da nossa escala, mas não representam direcionamento político. Cumprimos a legislação eleitoral brasileira e agimos rapidamente para corrigir erros quando identificados, garantindo condições de igualdade para todos que utilizam nossos serviços", disse a empresa

Em relação à nota do NetLab, respondeu que não permite conteúdos que explorem programas públicos para fraudar pessoas, removendo-os sempre que identificados.

President Trump announced early Wednesday that large data centers will be required to produce their own electricity and share any surplus with the communities around them in the form of a "dividend."

The post Trump Orders Data Centers to Generate Their Own Power, Provide ‘Dividend’ to Communities appeared first on Breitbart.

Nuevo México ha tomado la delantera como un Estado pionero a la hora de poner freno a los abusos de las compañías tecnológicas. Este miércoles, un juez ha ordenado a Meta —la compañía matriz de Facebook, Instagram y WhatsApp— pagar nada menos que 25.000 millones de dólares (más de 22.000 millones de euros), tras decidir que la compañía es culpable de engañar a sus usuarios, en concreto a los de Facebook, con respecto a la moderación de contenidos y también con sus políticas de privacidad.

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• A New Mexico judge ordered Meta to pay $25 billion over how it handled its users' data.
• It could be the largest penalty against Meta in history.
• Meta recently agreed to an $18 billion settlement over the impact of its tech on kids.

A judge in New Mexico ordered Meta to pay $25 billion for misleading users about how it handled their data and for failing to prevent misinformation on Facebook.

The ruling could be the largest penalty in Meta's history. Last month, Meta settled a child-safety lawsuit brought by a group of US states for $18 billion.

The New Mexico case focused on Meta's handling of user records that Cambridge Analytica used for campaign purposes during the 2016 election. New Mexico alleged that Facebook misrepresented the extent of users' control over their data on the app.

"Facebook's wrongdoing—over the course of years and systematically broadcast to the public—goes to the heart of Facebook's core business practices," Judge Francis J. Mathew wrote in the ruling. "It relates to the way in which Facebook induces people onto the platform and ultimately keeps them there."

In a statement, Meta's chief legal officer, C.J. Mahoney, said the penalty "makes it all but impossible to do business in the state of New Mexico."

"At its core, this lawsuit seeks to impose a tax on speech to enforce new rules for what people can say online," Mahoney said. "We are confident we will prevail on appeal."

A jury ruled against Meta last month, finding the company committed nearly 50 million violations of a New Mexico law prohibiting deceptive trade practices. Each violation carries a penalty of up to $5,000.

Some Meta executives, including CEO Mark Zuckerberg, were deposed in the case. New Mexico first sued the company in 2021, and the case went to trial last month.

In internal Meta communications presented at the trial, Zuckerberg appeared to obfuscate methods for users to hide their data.

"Give them a chance to change their privacy settings but obviously don't encourage it," Zuckerberg wrote in one internal message.

Meta's next move remains unclear. The company didn't immediately respond to a request for comment on Wednesday.

This is a breaking news story. It will be updated.

They warn of disproportionate restrictions on campaign accounts and urge Meta to ensure fair treatment of candidates.

On Wednesday, United Nations human rights experts expressed concern about restrictions on political freedom of expression occurring in Brazil as a result of the way the technology company Meta is handling its social media platforms during Brazil’s presidential elections.

RELATED:

Brazilian Court Gives Meta 24 Hours to Prove Equal Treatment of Presidential Campaigns

“Reports of restrictions on legitimate political expression on Meta platforms during Brazil’s elections raise concerns for freedom of expression, association, political participation and equal treatment of political viewpoints, UN experts said.

“Online platforms are key actors in democratic debate. Preventing people from speaking or reaching audiences without explanation affects who is heard,” they added.

This assessment is based on findings by international election observers who have reported incidents of political discrimination through electronic media.

The text reads, “META TARGETS LULA AGAIN. Meta employees admitted to intentionally interfering with Lula’s accounts, while boosting the visibility of Flavio Bolsonaro.”

Among those incidents, they highlighted the temporary interruptions of the campaign account of President Lula da Silva, the candidate of the Workers’ Party who is competing against U.S.-backed far-right Senator Flavio Bolsonaro in the runoff scheduled for Sunday, Oct. 25.

Observers have also recorded differences in audience engagement, user feeds, view counts and reach; restrictions on that campaign’s Instagram posts; and differences between the main political parties in AI image generation, WhatsApp channel search results, candidates’ stories and the distribution of political content potentially benefiting Bolsonaro’s campaign.

“Monitoring reports show thousands of accounts and posts have faced suspensions, reduced visibility and sharing limits, including journalists, human rights defenders, civil society actors and content creators,” the UN experts said.

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

Last week, due to this discriminatory treatment, the Brazilian Superior Electoral Court ordered Meta to apply the same rules to both candidates until the runoff, prohibiting unequal restrictions on campaign reach, recommendations, and search results.

“Losing reach can mean losing a voice in public debate and the ability to mobilise communities. Algorithms, AI systems and content-moderation decisions must not become invisible arbiters of political discussion. Where political expression appears disproportionately restricted, platforms must explain why, address unequal impacts and ensure effective remedies,” the UN experts warned.

“The responsibility to respect human rights requires technology companies to identify, prevent and address adverse impacts, in line with the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights, including in platform governance and content moderation,” they added.

“During elections, delayed remedies may have irreversible consequences. Freedom of expression and information integrity must therefore go hand in hand. Measures against disinformation must not arbitrarily restrict legitimate political expression,” the UN experts stressed, and urged Meta to assess whether its moderation, recommendation, and AI systems disproportionately restricted one side of Brazil’s electoral debate.

“Digital platforms must not become unaccountable gatekeepers of political debate, nor should their systems be susceptible to undue influence by political actors. Democracy and free and fair elections depend on independent and consistent platforms and an open, pluralistic environment where people can access information, scrutinise those seeking power, exchange views and organise without arbitrary interference,” the experts said.

The statement was signed by figures including Leopoldo Maldonado, Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of the right to freedom of opinion and expression; Margaret Satterthwaite, Special Rapporteur on the independence of judges and lawyers; and Gina Romero, Special Rapporteur on the rights to freedom of peaceful assembly and of association.

teleSUR/ JF Sources: UNHRC – EFE

Especialistas independentes da ONU (Organização das Nações Unidas) questionaram a atuação da Meta nas eleições brasileiras de 2026. Em nota divulgada nesta quarta-feira (21), o grupo cobra que a empresa investigue se seus sistemas de moderação, recomendação e inteligência artificial restringiram de forma desproporcional conteúdos ligados a um dos lados da disputa eleitoral.

Também pediram que a Meta forneça explicações e mecanismos de reparação adequados, aplique as regras de forma consistente e sem discriminação, mantenha um diálogo transparente com a sociedade civil e garanta que reclamações possam ser tratadas durante o período eleitoral.

Segundo eles, há preocupações sobre liberdade de expressão, participação política e igualdade de tratamento entre diferentes posições políticas depois de relatos de limitações à expressão política nas plataformas da empresa, que incluem Facebook, Instagram e WhatsApp.

Os especialistas relatam incidentes como:

• interrupções temporária de conta de campanha de um dos candidatos (sem mencionar qual);
• diferenças no engajamento do publico, nos feeds dos usuários, na contagem de visualizações e no alcance;
• restrições a publicações da campanha no Instagram;
• diferenças entre os principais partidos políticos na geração de imagens por IA, nos resultados de busca de canais do WhatsApp, nos stories dos candidatos e na distribuição de conteúdo politico, potencialmente favorecendo a campanha do candidato oposto.

“Plataformas online são atores fundamentais no debate democrático. Impedir que as pessoas se expressem ou alcancem audiências sem explicação afeta quem é ouvido”, disseram os especialistas independentes, que trabalham voluntariamente, não sendo funcionários da ONU nem recebendo salário.

Os observadores afirmam que relatórios de monitoramento mostram que milhares de contas e publicações foram suspensas, tiveram redução de visibilidade e limitações de compartilhamento, incluindo jornalistas, defensores de direitos humanos, atores da sociedade civil e criadores de conteúdo.

“Informações, inclusive de funcionários da Meta, sugerem que contas vinculadas a um dos lados da disputa presidencial foram afetadas de forma desproporcional”, declara a nota publicada nesta quarta-feira.

Os especialistas também alertaram que tais restrições podem afetas o acesso à informação, a liberdade de reunião pacifica e de associação, além de comprometer as eleições quando “as liberdades fundamentais não são respeitadas durante todo o processo eleitoral”.

Meta nas eleições

Em 16 de outubro, o TSE (Tribunal Superior Eleitoral) manteve, por unanimidade, a decisão do ministro Marco Aurélio Bellizze que determina que a Meta não interfira na distribuição de conteúdo político-eleitoral de Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT) nem de Flávio Bolsonaro (PL).

A liminar foi concedida em parte, em ação da campanha de Lula. A coligação afirma que a empresa falha “de forma reiterada e sistemática” na entrega de suas postagens e alega que a Meta AI, ferramenta de inteligência artificial da big tech, recusa pedidos de imagens do presidente, mas atende pedidos sobre Flávio Bolsonaro.

Pela decisão, a Meta não pode reduzir a distribuição, excluir da recomendação, restringir a busca ou ajustar métricas de conteúdo político-eleitoral de nenhuma das duas candidaturas.

Há três exceções: políticas da plataforma divulgadas previamente e aplicadas de forma idêntica a Lula e a Flávio; a regra do TSE que retira os perfis oficiais dos candidatos dos sistemas de recomendação; e ordens judiciais.

O ministro também determinou que a empresa:

• só restrinja contas de anúncios das campanhas após revisão humana ou reveja, em até duas horas, bloqueios feitos por sistema automático;
• suspenda anúncios eleitorais pagos por quem não pode contratá-los, especialmente a partir de contas no exterior;
• aplique critério idêntico às duas candidaturas na Meta AI;
• apure 255 perfis apontados como possível rede inautêntica e verifique a rotulagem de IA em 1.204 publicações;
• reponha, até 21 de outubro, o impulsionamento contratado pela campanha de Lula e não entregue.

Para Bellizze, relator do caso na Corte Eleitoral, não há comprovação de manipulação proposital pela Meta na distribuição de conteúdos a favor ou contra Lula ou Flávio. Segundo ele, a medida é preventiva e busca evitar tratamento desigual na reta final da disputa, marcada para 25 de outubro.

Na terça-feira (20), a Meta negou que esteja descumprindo ordens da Corte Eleitoral durante a eleição ou favorecendo candidaturas em suas redes sociais.

No documento enviado ao TSE, a empresa rebateu as acusações da campanha de Lula, detalha as medidas adotadas para cumprir as diretrizes eleitorais e solicitou uma reunião com o ministro Marco Aurélio Belizze, realizada na terça-feira (20).

Segundo a Meta, as plataformas sob sua gestão aplicam as mesmas regras de distribuição de conteúdo para todos os candidatos e têm adotado uma série de medidas para evitar abusos.

TSE ouve Meta e campanhas sobre igualdade em tratamento de Flávio e Lula | CNN NOVO DIA

La película de Pixar Monstruos, S. A. pasa en un mundo de fantasía donde toda una sociedad industrial se sostiene sobre la energía de los gritos de los niños. Para eso, hay toda una factoría, ocupando una gigantesca nave industrial, que va poniendo a disposición de monstruos profesionales puertas mágicas que les conducen a las habitaciones infantiles. Los monstruos entran, asustan y se van a quedar con los amigos o a cenar. Para ellos es una industria cualquiera.

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The upcoming U.S. midterms are not just another vote. They are on track to become a new testing ground for autonomous AI agents that first emerged in the Hugging Face attack. Experts are already warning of the potential for these “rogue agents,” seen in action this summer, to carry out more refined, dangerous and harder-to-trace disinformation campaigns and electoral interference than those observed in previous election cycles.

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• TikTok is moving on quickly after losing access to Meta's ads platform in some markets.
• It's shifted ad spend to YouTube, Pinterest, and mobile-app networks, according to Sensor Tower.
• TikTok was a prominent ad spender on Meta before its ousting on October 8.

TikTok's message to Meta: If you won't take our ad dollars, your competitors will.

Meta took a bold stance this month by blocking ByteDance, TikTok's parent company, from running ads on Meta apps in some markets. Why? Well, Meta's answer was pretty straightforward. It didn't want to "run ads from a competitor whose goal is to pull people off our apps."

TikTok is now redirecting that ad spend elsewhere.

Since the ban went into effect on October 8, TikTok has shifted its ad budgets to other platforms like YouTube and Pinterest, according to allocation estimates provided to CMO Insider by the analytics firm Sensor Tower.

The share of TikTok's ad spend that went to YouTube rose to 17% between October 9 and October 16, up from 9% in the first week of October. Meanwhile, its ad spend on Pinterest grew to 9% during the same period, up from 3% in the first week of October. A majority of TikTok's spend — 58% — went to mobile-app ad networks like Google's AdMob, up from 19% at the start of October, when Meta was still an option.

Meta's move against TikTok "highlights the growing intensity of the competition across the digital landscape and across the two of them," said Kate Black, EVP of social strategy at Horizon Media. "For marketers, this really just reinforces the need to be agile and build balanced media strategies — and not having all your eggs in one basket."

Meta's TikTok ousting isn't unprecedented. Other platforms like Amazon have previously blocked competitors from running ads, while Twitter in late 2022 restricted users' ability to link to their accounts on social apps like Instagram and Mastodon, calling it "free promotion."

"Declining promotional services to a competitor is a normal business practice across industries," a Meta spokesperson said. Meta's changes will impact advertising policies in the US, Canada, Egypt, Indonesia, Japan, Thailand, and Vietnam.

For Meta, a company that pulled in $117 billion in revenue in the first half of 2026, losing one advertiser won't hurt much. Still, TikTok and ByteDance were notably prominent spenders on Meta's apps, according to Sensor Tower.

Meta will also lose ad spend from third-party marketers that link to TikTok or other ByteDance properties in their ads, further increasing its potential losses. Direct-to-consumer brands that may want to drive potential customers to TikTok Shop will miss out.

No Meta, no problem

For TikTok, losing access to Meta's more than 3 billion monthly users is a setback.

Like any social media giant, TikTok is incentivized to grow, grow, grow. Ads that target new users and drive new app downloads are part of the playbook — a strategy Meta uses to promote its own apps, like Instagram, too.

One TikTok staffer focused on user acquisition, James Gao, posted a LinkedIn callout on Sunday asking people to get in touch if they had ad inventory that could help the company meet its goals.

Horizon Media's Black said that while Meta controls the "lion's share" of social budgets, there are plenty of viable alternatives when it comes to using an ad to drive an action like an app download. Besides Google, YouTube, and Pinterest, marketers are increasingly turning to other platforms like Snapchat and Reddit, she said.

A manifestação do órgão, que supervisiona de forma independente as plataformas do grupo, também aponta preocupações com as eleições de meio de mandato nos Estados Unidos, que vai definir a nova composição do Congresso do país.

Notícias relacionadas:

• TSE reúne Meta e campanhas para tratar de restrições de postagens.
• Meta recusa pedido federal para criar canal de proteção a jornalistas.
• Ao TSE, Meta nega tratamento desigual entre candidaturas presidenciais.

O Comitê destacou que, durante as eleições e em períodos de maior tensão política, as falhas de moderação de conteúdo da Meta costumam se manifestar de duas formas: a aplicação excessivamente rigorosa das regras, que suprime o discurso político, e a aplicação insuficiente dessas regras, que compromete a integridade eleitoral, citando especificamente o caso brasileiro, envolvendo restrições de impulsionamento aplicadas a conta do presidente Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT), que disputa a reeleição contra Flávio Bolsonaro (PL).

"A aplicação excessivamente rigorosa das políticas antifraude da Meta às contas de anúncios do presidente do Brasil, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, representa uma falha que deveria ter sido encaminhada a uma equipe interna de especialistas responsáveis pela análise de casos", diz o órgão.

Em manifestação enviada na noite de segunda-feira (19) ao Tribunal Superior Eleitoral (TSE), a Meta negou ter favorecido o alcance de publicações em prol de algum dos candidatos na corrida presidencial.

No documento, a empresa afirma que "os conteúdos relativos às duas candidaturas são tratados de forma igual e não discriminatória" e que um documento técnico anexado ao processo "descreve o mecanismo que assegura essa isonomia".

A Meta respondeu um questionamento do ministro Marco Aurélio Bellizze, que na semana passada determinou que a empresa apresentasse informações sobre as medidas adotadas para garantir o tratamento isonômico às duas candidaturas que disputam o segundo turno da eleição presidencial.

Bellizze atendeu a pedido da coligação Brasil Pronto pra Mais, do presidente Lula, que reclamou de favorecimento a publicações do adversário Flávio Bolsonaro.

Ainda na tarde desta segunda (19), centenas de manifestantes protestaram em São Paulo, na região das sedes da Meta e do Google, na zona oeste de São Paulo. Com o slogan "Meta, não se meta", os participantes apontaram censura nas participações de ativistas nas redes sociais, falta de neutralidade na mediação dos conteúdos e defesa de interesses próprios na gestão dos conteúdos e comunidades.

O Conselho de Supervisão da Meta também fez menção às eleições de 2022, quando solicitou à empresa "que construísse uma estrutura mensurável para avaliar seus esforços de proteção da integridade eleitoral, incluindo o compartilhamento de indicadores relevantes".

"Embora a Meta frequentemente cite indicadores gerais de atividade, como o número de anúncios armazenados ou de contas removidas, a empresa ainda não estabeleceu indicadores públicos que avaliem de forma transparente a eficácia de suas medidas de aplicação das regras — nem suas deficiências mais críticas. Isso precisa mudar", cobrou o conselho.

A criação de um canal para o encaminhamento e acompanhamento de casos urgentes foi solicitada pelo Observatório da Violência Contra Jornalistas e Comunicadores Sociais (Observatório), órgão vinculado ao Ministério da Justiça e Segurança Pública e responsável por monitorar e apoiar as investigações das denúncias envolvendo comunicadores sociais.

Notícias relacionadas:

• Ao TSE, Meta nega tratamento desigual entre candidaturas presidenciais.
• Ato em São Paulo cobra neutralidade da Meta nas eleições.
• TSE determina isonomia após IA da Meta barrar imagens de Lula.

“[A empresa] afirmou que o mecanismo poderia representar a “assunção [aceitação] de novas obrigações regulatórias”, revelou o observatório.

O órgão acrescentou que a Meta argumentou também que a análise do pedido exigiria um prazo maior, compatível com a complexidade do tema, e que suas políticas se aplicam a todos os usuários, igualmente, de forma que, para a Meta, os canais gerais já disponíveis são suficientes.

A reportagem da Agência Brasil entrou em contato com a assessoria da Meta, que respondeu que a empresa não vai comentar o assunto.

Violência Digital

Em nota, as secretarias de Justiça (Senajus) e de Direitos Digitais (Sedigi) do Ministério da Justiça e Segurança Pública e a Secretaria de Políticas Digitais (SPDGI) da Secretaria de Comunicação Social da Presidência da República destacaram que foram registrados 14.182 ataques digitais contra jornalistas e veículos de comunicação durante o primeiro turno, segundo a Coalizão em Defesa do Jornalismo.

Além disso, a organização CTRL+Z reuniu 1.121 relatos de restrições a contas e conteúdos políticos, incluindo bloqueios e remoções sem justificativa específica.

“Os levantamentos expõem duas ameaças ao debate público: a escalada da violência contra quem produz informação e a falta de transparência nas decisões que podem restringir sua circulação, com potencial impacto no legítimo exercício da liberdade de expressão”, apontam as secretarias.

O texto divulgado reforça a “necessidade de mecanismos específicos e permanentes de proteção a jornalistas, comunicadores e veículos de comunicação no ambiente digital”, para além do período eleitoral.

“Os canais gerais da Meta e a cooperação com a Justiça Eleitoral não substituem um mecanismo de proteção capaz de responder a situações urgentes de violência contra jornalistas, inclusive fora do período eleitoral”, insistiu o ministério.

A pasta ressalta que ataques e restrições ao exercício do jornalismo “ultrapassam a esfera individual e podem comprometer o direito de toda a sociedade à informação”.

• Joel Kaplan, Meta's chief global affairs officer, is leaving, Meta confirmed to Business Insider.
• Kaplan, a Republican who once worked for the Bush administration, spent 15 years at Meta.
• Kaplan helped bridge ties between Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg and President Donald Trump.

A longtime political operative at Meta who played a key role in bridging ties between the company and President Donald Trump's administration is leaving.

Joel Kaplan, Meta's chief global affairs officer, will leave after the midterm elections and a transition period, Axios first reported. Meta confirmed the report to Business Insider.

A veteran Marine Corps artillery officer, Kaplan is a Republican who served as an advisor and deputy chief of staff to former president George W. Bush.

Kaplan joined Meta in 2011. At Meta, he oversaw the company's response to policy issues ranging from the Cambridge Analytica scandal to the end of its fact-checking program.

Kaplan helped repair a once-fraught relationship between Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg and Trump after Meta temporarily suspended Trump's account following the January 6 riot.

Kaplan posted on X on Tuesday that he plans to spend time with his family and figure out what to do next.

Kaplan didn't respond to a request for comment from Business Insider.

Kaplan has served as Meta's chief global affairs officer since 2025, succeeding former UK politician Nick Clegg. Other Meta executives will share his responsibilities, Axios reported.

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