The campaign of Senator Flávio Bolsonaro (PL-RJ), a candidate in Brazil's 2026 presidential election, filed a petition on Tuesday with the president of the Superior Electoral Court (TSE), Minister Kassio Nunes Marques, demanding that Meta explain why WhatsApp did not identify signs of coordinated inauthentic behavior in the "Exército do Lula" (Lula's Army) channel.
The channel and the allegations
The channel was created by federal deputy André Janones (Rede-MG), a prominent ally of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT). According to the petition, channel administrators instructed users to search the phrase "Bolsonaro mandou matar Lula" ("Bolsonaro ordered Lula's killing") on Google and to amplify specific hashtags on X (formerly Twitter), artificially inflating negative search trends and trending topics associated with Flávio Bolsonaro.
The legal filing cites a surge in searches for negative terms linked to Flávio Bolsonaro following the Band television debate on Sunday, October 18. The campaign argues the channel promotes content "artificially inflated on social networks through algorithmic manipulation."
As of publication, the "Exército do Lula" WhatsApp channel has 6.6 million followers, compared with 2.1 million for the rival "Tropa do Flávio" channel.
Legal back-and-forth at the TSE
This is the second time the Flávio Bolsonaro campaign has brought the matter to the TSE. On October 11, the campaign first petitioned Minister Nunes Marques, triggering a dispute between two ministers of the court. Minister Ricardo Villas Bôas Cueva, the court's corregedor (internal oversight chief), overturned Nunes Marques's initial injunction and ordered the channel restored. Nunes Marques then issued a new injunction superseding Cueva's decision, suspending the channel again.
On October 13, Minister Nunes Marques met with coordinators from both the Lula and Flávio Bolsonaro campaigns. Shortly after, the TSE established new rules linking instant-messaging channels such as WhatsApp to official campaigns, determining that spontaneous support does not automatically bind a channel to a campaign.
Context for international readers
Brazil's Superior Electoral Court (TSE) oversees elections and regulates political advertising and digital campaigning. WhatsApp, owned by Meta, is the dominant messaging platform in Brazil and a primary vector for political communication. The court has struggled to define the boundary between organic political mobilization and coordinated inauthentic behavior on encrypted messaging platforms.
Poder360 contacted Janones by email for comment on the allegations. No response had been received by publication time; the outlet said it would update the story if a response arrives.