By Ricardo Luiz
Meta, the owner of Facebook and Instagram, told Brazil's Superior Electoral Court (TSE) on Friday that it does not favor Sen. Flávio Bolsonaro of the Liberal Party (PL) in the 2026 elections. The company also presented figures that run against the campaign of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva of the Workers' Party (PT). According to Meta, without paid ads, Lula's Instagram posts reached 50% more people than the senator's.
What the Workers' Party claimed
The PT campaign filed a case arguing that the reach of posts by Flávio Bolsonaro and allied lawmakers was being privileged. Meta's defense says the survey the petistas used has methodological flaws.
What Meta says it found
According to the company, Lula's campaign ignored differences in digital strategy and counted repeated views of the same videos, which, in Meta's words in the defense, distorts the comparison.
The data cited in the case show the following:
- Flávio posted less, but reached more people per post.
- Lula posted far more often and, adding everything up, had higher total reach.
In short, one account bets on quantity, while the other delivers more per post.
On Rep. Nikolas Ferreira (PL-MG), a federal deputy from the state of Minas Gerais, Meta says his high numbers were inflated by repeated plays of his videos, not by any special treatment from the platform.
Opposition reaches more, and Meta explains why
Another figure weighs in the case: the number of people reached by at least one post from the opposition was 13% higher than that of the pro-government bloc. Meta argues that this gap does not prove political favoritism. According to the company, reach depends on posting frequency, likes, comments and viewing time, that is, on the real reaction of the public.
Why it matters
The TSE is the court that oversees Brazil's elections. In October it had already ordered Meta to guarantee equal treatment to the candidacies, without artificially reducing the reach of posts. The company's defense now tries to show that the rule is being followed.
The final word belongs to the TSE, which has yet to analyze the case and the platform's arguments. The dispute is a gauge of the 2026 digital contest, in which the PT campaign is trying to take a debate over social media reach to the Electoral Courts. Meta's defense points out that Lula, even with the government's communications machine, trailed Flávio in engagement per post.
VDD Analysis
When the opposition's reach numbers come out higher, the government camp's reaction is to go to court. The data presented by Meta suggest that the difference comes from the public's spontaneous engagement, not from favoritism. In a free environment, whoever talks better to voters wins attention, and no court ruling can replace that. It remains to be seen whether the TSE will maintain the neutrality it demanded of the platform itself.
