In the race to be Brazil’s next president, the final two candidates are appealing to voters not only at rallies but online as well. On Sunday, incumbent President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva will face right-wing Senator Flavio Bolsonaro in the final round of the election. The race is expected to be tight.
But in its final days, questions have festered over whether the digital arena has been a level playing field for the two candidates. The social media giant Meta, which owns Facebook, WhatsApp and Instagram, has faced accusations before Brazil’s top election authority, the Superior Electoral Court (TSE), that it suppressed Lula’s content and favoured material promoting Bolsonaro. Meta’s products rank among the most popular social media platforms in Brazil, and political ad spending on its sites has grown at a breakneck pace.
An analysis from the Brazilian news outlet G1 found that Meta received at least 288m Brazilian reais ($57m) in direct campaign spending in 2026, double what it received during the 2022 presidential race. That increase marks a shift in how Brazil runs elections. More than 76 percent of Brazilian voters now get their news online, said Andre K Rodarte, a researcher at the Digital Democracy Centre at the University of Southern Denmark.
With social media eclipsing traditional advertising, Rodarte explained that a growing class of politicians is using provocative, viral messaging to connect with voters. He pointed to the success of online influencers like right-wing personality Nikolas Ferreira and left-wing activist Erika Hilton, who each were reelected this year to Brazil’s Chamber of Deputies with record numbers of votes. In Brazil, the reliance on online campaigning first took off in 2018, with the election of President Jair Bolsonaro, according to Leticia Cesarino, an anthropologist at the Federal University of Santa Catarina who studies far-right politics online.
Jair, a far-right leader, is the father of this year’s presidential frontrunner, Flavio Bolsonaro. When Jair first ran for president eight years ago, his platform promised tough-on-crime tactics and a return to traditional Christian family values, which he spread through bite-sized social media posts. At his 2019 inauguration, supporters chanted “Facebook!” and “WhatsApp!” in unison to show their support for his online presence.
After losing the 2022 election, Jair continued to spread false claims that the vote had been rigged. His supporters ultimately stormed three buildings – Congress, the Supreme Court and the presidential palace – in the capital, Brasilia, on January 8, 2023, after Lula was sworn in. In the aftermath, the TSE ruled that Jair had abused his position to undermine the election and prohibited him from holding public office for eight years.
Extract — continue reading at the source.
