Justice Dias Toffoli of Brazil’s Supreme Federal Court (STF) on Tuesday authorized presidential candidate Renan Santos of the Missão party to resume electoral advertising through internet addresses registered with the country’s Superior Electoral Court (TSE). Toffoli also restored the ticket’s access to campaign funds and allowed Santos to participate in debates on radio, television, podcasts and other media.
The decision reverses restrictions Toffoli had imposed on Santos’s campaign after electoral authorities found that the candidate had not registered all of his social-media profiles in the TSE’s official Divulgacand system. The case is based on single-source reporting from Folha de S.Paulo.
Disclosure Deadline
Santos now has 72 hours to provide the creation date and the date when each profile began being used for electoral advertising. He must also identify every internet address used by the campaign and respond to any possible violations of electoral rules. Failure to comply could lead to the rejection of his candidacy registration.
Toffoli ordered internet platforms to restore the profiles listed in Divulgacand. They must remain subject to an order blocking algorithmic recommendations and preserving access records for possible investigation. Platforms face a fine of R$10,000 (roughly USD 2,000, an approximate conversion) per hour for each profile if they fail to comply.
The judge also notified the Office of the Prosecutor General’s Electoral Division, which has 24 hours to respond in the case and take action if it identifies electoral or criminal violations.
The Registration Dispute
Santos initially reported only two social-media profiles to electoral authorities while leaving out 16 others, according to Folha. The TSE rule requires platforms to remove officially registered candidate profiles from recommendation systems. Their posts should not be promoted to users who do not already follow them.
Folha reported that the omitted accounts remained eligible for algorithmic recommendations, unlike the accounts of other presidential candidates. The report prompted the earlier suspension of Santos’s online campaign and restrictions on his participation in debates.
Toffoli said his initial decision sought to preserve equal conditions among candidates and protect voters’ access to legitimate means of persuasion. He argued that undisclosed profiles could operate outside legal and public oversight while appearing to be ordinary user accounts.
“The networks that were not reported benefit from opaque algorithms and evade social and legal control,” Toffoli wrote, according to Folha.
Party’s Defense
Missão asked that the precautionary order be reviewed by the full Supreme Court and said Santos’s campaign had acted in good faith. The party argued that the additional profiles were disclosed later because the decision to use them for electoral advertising had been made afterward, not because the campaign intended to violate the rules.
Toffoli maintained that parties have a legal duty to report all electronic addresses used during the campaign. He nevertheless lifted the restrictions while requiring the new disclosures and preserving the possibility of further legal action. Before Tuesday’s decision, Santos had said he would challenge the restrictions and seek impeachment proceedings against Toffoli and Justice Alexandre de Moraes.