Lula campaign blamed Meta but grew a 10.5 million channel on Meta

In the October runoff in Brazil, the campaign of President Lula told that Meta tried to change the election. At the same time, its primary tool was Army of Lula, a WhatsApp channel. The channel had 10.5 million followers on 23 October. On 25 October, Lula got 51.79% of the votes. Meta tells that it has no bias and that each problem had a clear cause.

How it worked

Deputy Janones ran the channel and gave tasks each day. Members shared posts, searched for set words online and pushed hashtags. Each member had to invite four more persons.

The numbers

On 15 October, the electoral court of Brazil ordered Meta to stop not equal cuts of audience. The penalty is BRL 500,000 each day. The newspaper Folha tells that messages of Meta show that the campaign could not boost posts for almost 24 hours.

What is not known

The court found no proof of a plan to change the algorithms, and outsiders cannot look at them. The newspaper tells that no message it read admits interference. Meta must report on its compliance five days after the results.

Insight: Meta hosted the campaign and the case

Meta was the platform of the campaign, and the court told it to monitor the channels. The president tells that rules for platforms are first, but the new Congress can stop them. Google stopped political ads in 2024, and Meta is almost the only source of paid audience. This reads as a hold on the campaigns: each move against Meta on Meta adds to its use. Look at what Congress does with the platform bills.