TSE Justice Bellizze Orders Meta to Treat Lula and Flávio Bolsonaro Equally, With R$500,000-a-Day Fine; Plenary Referends Oct. 16

On Oct. 15, 2026 Justice Bellizze partly granted Lula’s coalition an injunction in Rp 0602746-69: Meta may not reduce distribution, exclude from recommendation or restrict search results of posts about the two presidential candidates unequally, must apply the same AI image-generation criteria to both, and must have human review of any automated restriction of a candidate’s ad account, under a fine of R$500,000 a day. As reported by O Tempo, Bellizze set aside, for now, manipulation for or against any candidacy while faulting Meta’s technical explanation of the Oct. 7 view-count incident for giving no comparison with the opposing candidacy, and found a “falha” in Meta AI’s prompt control without elements showing it was deliberate. The full Plenary referended the order 7-0 in a virtual session on Oct. 16 (O Tempo). Compensatory reach was refused for lack of demonstration and measurement of the loss (as summarized by Justice Cueva on Oct. 22). The text of the Oct. 15 decision (PJe ID 179955611) was not available; the entry rests on press summaries of it plus Cueva’s description. Meta later quoted this decision, in Portuguese “Não se afirma, nesta fase, que a representada tenha manipulado a distribuição de conteúdos”, which Meta’s English renders “there is no finding that”.