World
Lula and Flávio Bolsonaro campaigns fail to agree on WhatsApp channel rules
Their legal teams did not settle criteria for when third-party channels must be reported to Brazil’s electoral court. If no deal is reached, the issue could be decided by the full bench of the TSE.
Election lawyers for Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and Flávio Bolsonaro met on Wednesday the 14th but failed to reach an agreement on rules for registering campaign channels on WhatsApp, O Globo reported.
The main dispute is over when a channel run by a third party triggers the obligation for a campaign to report it to the Superior Electoral Court. According to the newspaper, court president Nunes Marques joined the final part of the meeting.
Campaigns are already required to report their channels, but there is still no clear definition of when a supporter’s account should be treated as part of a candidate’s own operation. The matter remains under discussion, and both legal teams still have to consult their campaign leaderships to assess whether rules can be set on what falls inside the campaign structure and what stays outside it.
O Globo said the debate intensified after Nunes Marques ordered the removal of the Exército do Lula channel, run by congressman André Janones, and required Lula’s campaign to register it. Under that account, if the campaigns cannot agree on metrics and criteria, the matter will be sent to the full bench of the TSE.
At the same time, the legal teams reached an understanding, still pending approval from the campaigns themselves, to suspend cases tied to events from the pre-campaign period and the first round, in an effort to let the court focus on second-round disputes, according to O Globo. The lawyers are also expected to draw up a list of cases that could be paused.
Nunes Marques also heard complaints about Meta and was expected to meet the company on Thursday the 15th to present a list of demands, including equal treatment of the candidates in relation to algorithms and artificial intelligence tools, as well as action against irregular paid boosting of content, O Globo reported.
Sources
About this piece. Written by El Notero with AI assistance, from reporting published by the outlet cited above. El Notero did no original reporting on this story.
