Brazil’s top electoral court fined Meta’s Facebook 7.5 million reais, about $1.3 million, for failing to fully comply with judicial orders during the country’s presidential election runoff campaign. The orders involved claims from President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva’s campaign that Meta’s platforms treated Lula’s content differently from content supporting challenger Flávio Bolsonaro.
The justices ruled late Tuesday that Facebook did not adequately meet court demands tied to those allegations. But they also said there was no evidence so far that the company tried to influence the election’s outcome. Justice Marco Aurélio Bellizze wrote that such a finding would require “compelling evidence of intent” through the proper legal process. His decision was unanimously accepted by the court.
Lula’s campaign had claimed that Meta, which owns Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp, used biased algorithms and artificial intelligence restrictions to favor Bolsonaro. The allegation drew support from Lula backers and led to a protest outside Meta’s offices in Sao Paulo.
Meta denied political bias before the ruling. It said platform issues came from unrelated global technical glitches, strict anti-fraud measures and regulatory compliance, not targeted suppression. Meta also told the court it had adopted measures to treat the two campaigns equally. In a statement Monday, the company said it applied “the same rules to every candidate, every party, and every political viewpoint in Brazil.”
Bellizze said Meta submitted statements and documents, but some orders were not followed, were incomplete, or came late. The fine covers three days at 500,000 reais between Oct. 17 and Oct. 19 and six days at 1 million reais between Oct. 20 and Oct. 25.
