The open letter calls on Brazilian authorities to enforce electoral rules and hold Big Tech companies accountable for their interference in the 2026 elections. It also urges UN and Inter-American human rights mechanisms to monitor the situation.
Read the letter below:
Big Techs are interfering with Brazilian elections. Authorities must act.
Joint Statement by International Civil Society Organizations. October, 2026
We, the undersigned civil society organizations dedicated to the defense of democracy, human rights, digital rights, and press freedom, express our deep concern about the systematic violations of Brazil's electoral rules by Big Tech companies during the 2026 general elections. Brazil is in the final stretch of its presidential race, with the October 25 runoff between President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and Senator Flávio Bolsonaro. In a deeply divided country where social media plays a decisive role in shaping political outcomes, the conduct of the major platforms during this election raises serious concerns about electoral integrity and its broader implications for democracy.
Independent researchers, journalists, and civil society organizations have been running surveys, audits, and writing reports documenting a pattern of conducts expressly banned under electoral rules since March 2026, enabled by the tech companies operating in Brazil.
Generative AI systems were found ranking and recommending candidates and deepfakes are circulating without any AI labeling. Ekō documented Meta taking in money from foreign accounts to boost political ads containing deepfakes, and Amnesty International found disinformation ads sent from abroad with no verification. A NetLab UFRJ analysis of 2,326 Meta ads found that 68.1% attacked institutions or raised suspicions about the conduct of the election. On election day itself, during the legally mandated blackout window, irregular ads ran on Meta, Kwai, and Google, and candidate videos were recommended on TikTok and YouTube. AI was also disproportionately weaponized against women candidates: a MonitorA survey of 9,888 images found that one in four offensive images targeting female candidates showed signs of AI generation, used to scale up misogynistic, racist, and transphobic attacks.
These violations are compounded by arbitrary content moderation that disproportionately suppressed legitimate electoral speech, mostly on Meta's platforms: thousands of users reported bans, removals, and shadowbanning after posting electoral content, including the profiles of student unions, social justice movements, and journalists. All of this without providing any further explanation, let alone respecting users' right to appeal.
Ahead of the first-round vote, Google, Meta, TikTok, OpenAI, Kwai, X, and other companies were required to submit compliance plans and cooperation agreements to electoral authorities. They all contained commitments on timely, effective and proportionate content moderation, reporting channels, and political neutrality. However, when measured against the documented reality of this election, the conclusion is clear: these companies failed to honor their own commitments and have not been held accountable. Equally concerning, the Electoral Court itself has so far failed to use the enforcement tools the law grants it, despite the body of evidence produced by researchers, newsrooms, and independent organizations.
We therefore call on the Brazilian authorities to put an immediate end to arbitrary content moderation and require clear, reasoned, and appealable moderation decisions, and address ongoing foreign interference through paid political advertising, including by enforcing advertiser verification and transparency about the funding and origin of such ads.
The scale and cross-border nature of these violations also demand international attention. We call on the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of the right to freedom of opinion and expression, the UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights defenders, the UN Working Group on Business and Human Rights, and the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights to monitor the situation in Brazil, engage with the platforms involved, and assess whether their conduct during the Brazilian electoral period is compatible with the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights. We likewise call on the Special Rapporteur for Freedom of Expression of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) to follow the runoff closely. With Brazil's October 25 runoff approaching, the authorities must act, and the companies have no excuse for failing to meet their obligations
What is at stake in Brazil is not only the outcome of one election, but the demonstration effect for every democracy facing the same combination of unaccountable platforms, unregulated generative AI, and cross-border disinformation financing. Authorities must act before it is too late.
By CTRL+Z and signatories
