Brazil court fines Meta 7.5 million reais

Brazil’s Superior Electoral Court unanimously fined Meta 7.5 million reais for late and incomplete responses to court orders during the 2026 presidential runoff campaign, while saying the case had not established that the company deliberately sought to influence the election.

The court said Meta failed to meet some requests, fulfilled others only in part or responded after deadlines. The penalty covered nine days of fines: 500,000 reais per day from October 17 to 19 and 1 million reais per day from October 20 to 25. The amount is about $1.3 million.

The orders concerned allegations that the company treated the campaigns of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and Senator Flávio Bolsonaro differently on its platforms. Lula’s coalition had complained that its posts faced restrictions on distribution and that the campaigns received unequal treatment in the operation of Meta’s tools.

Justice Marco Aurélio Bellizze, the court’s reporting judge, said the record included technical failures acknowledged by Meta, but did not provide a preliminary basis to conclude that the company deliberately acted to unbalance the election. He said such a finding would require robust evidence in...