In Brazil’s elections, big techs’ transparency and cooperation policies translate as governance washing, according to this expert

Rio de Janeiro’s Federal University NetLab has been closely monitoring how the 2026 Brazilian general election unfolds on social media. Amid a series of corruption scandals, the election is flooded with headlines about the role of social media companies in the campaign. Users supporting incumbent center-left candidate Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva have reported a sudden drop in Instagram Story views when posting about politics.

Meta AI allegedly refused to generate images featuring Lula’s name and party number, while doing so for his far-right opponent and son of the imprisoned former president Jair Bolsonaro. Meta acknowledged technical problems on its platforms affecting how pro-Lula content was delivered to users.

NetLab’s project coordinator Nicole Sanchotene highlighted the difficulty in evaluating the impact and possible effects on the election and people’s perception. The central issue is transparency, a normalization of possible illicit electoral practices, and non-compliance with requirements. Kwai, a major platform in Brazil with over 60 million users, partnered with the electoral court but still has problems with its library for political-electoral ads.

NetLab has called this a 'facade of transparency.' Each platform has specific issues, including incomplete data, inappropriate content publication or recommendation.

Sanchotene emphasized that social media platforms are crucial in Brazilians’ daily lives. A Reuters report shows that people increasingly get information from social media, with WhatsApp being a source of information from close contacts. Brazil is a significant market for WhatsApp, and several layers of social and professional interactions pass through it. Discussing the electoral dispute without social media and Meta’s platforms is impossible.