Brazil’s electoral court ordered WhatsApp to suspend a channel with more than 3.4 million members, then provisionally restored it hours later. In a separate ruling, the court blocked a Lula campaign advertisement. The opposing orders put campaign speech—and the machinery deciding what voters may see—under judges’ control before the Oct. 25 runoff.
Before the channel returned, Federal deputy André Janones said, “A censura já começou” (“censorship has already begun”). Janones, who represents Minas Gerais for Rede Sustentabilidade, created “Exército do Lula” to support Lula. By Sunday evening, no one knew whether WhatsApp had reactivated the channel, and the Superior Electoral Court (TSE) had issued no note about its restoration.
Who Gets to Speak
On Sunday, Oct. 11, TSE president Kassio Nunes Marques ordered WhatsApp, owned by Meta Platforms, to suspend the channel. WhatsApp had three hours to disable it. Later, Ricardo Villas Bôas Cueva, the electoral court’s inspector-general and rapporteur of the case, provisionally restored the channel until the court’s full bench rules.
Suspending an entire channel, Cueva said, “exige demonstração da extensão e da reiteração das condutas”—proof of how widespread and repeated the conduct is. He said the court must first show that milder measures against individual posts fall short, and that officials ordered the suspension before finishing evidence-gathering. He left open the possibility of restoring stricter measures if new facts justified them.
Flávio Bolsonaro’s campaign sought the suspension, alleging that the channel spread disinformation about cuts to Bolsa Família cash transfers and pensions. Nunes Marques said the channel repeated content the court had already judged untrue, including a claim that Flávio favored dropping Our Lady of Aparecida as Brazil’s patron saint. Flávio, a senator for the conservative Liberal Party (PL), is the son of former president Jair Bolsonaro and Lula’s opponent in the runoff. Lula leads the left-wing Workers’ Party (PT).
On Oct. 10, the TSE said Cueva had admitted Flávio’s abuse case against Lula, running mate Geraldo Alckmin and Janones. The filing seeks to strip Lula and Alckmin of their registration and suspend the channel. Cueva gave Flávio 72 hours to provide more information and the defendants five days to file their defence. The court stressed that admitting the case doesn’t mean the allegations are true. The full bench had yet to decide whether the channel could remain open through the runoff.
In São Paulo, Lula told journalists he wouldn’t accept “intromissão indevida da Justiça Eleitoral” (“undue interference by the electoral court”). His campaign called the suspension a cause of “estranheza e revolta” (“surprise and outrage”). The deadlines and case continued that week, with no clear date for a full-court ruling.
Campaign Speech on the Court’s Terms
On Saturday, Oct. 10, Nunes Marques issued a provisional injunction suspending a Lula campaign ad. The ad ran in free, publicly funded campaign airtime, which resumed on Oct. 9, and targeted Flávio and his running mate, Alfredo Gaspar, both members of the PL. Nunes Marques ruled that it could mislead voters.
The advertisement contrasted Lula’s ticket, described as the “duo of experience,” with a “duo of scandals.” It displayed a headline about funding for Dark Horse, a film about Jair Bolsonaro, and included audio mentioning money laundering. The judge said the combination could lead voters to believe an accusation had been proven. Press reports have linked the film’s financing to Daniel Vorcaro, the banker who controlled the failed lender Banco Master.
The ad also cited an allegation involving the sexual abuse of a minor against Gaspar, but didn’t say that Supreme Court Justice Gilmar Mendes shelved a request to investigate him on Oct. 6. Nunes Marques wrote that showing an old headline “as if it were current” without mentioning the shelving could suggest an open inquiry. The injunction was provisional, and the full court could review it; it didn’t end any police inquiry into Dark Horse’s funding. As of Sunday afternoon, the court hadn’t published the decision or a press note, and no one knew whether Lula’s campaign would appeal.
The court’s orders haven’t fallen on only one side. On Sept. 22, Nunes Marques suspended a Lula radio jingle linking Flávio to several scandals. On Saturday, Justice Marco Aurélio Bellizze ordered Gaspar to delete an Instagram video accusing Lula of seeking 1 billion reais, about US$200 million at 5.01 reais per US$, in bribes. Lula denied the allegation, and Bellizze found too little evidence.
The Poll and the Ballot Box
An Ipespe poll released Saturday, Oct. 10, gave Flávio 52.7% of valid votes to Lula’s 47.3% in the runoff. Ipespe and Abrapel, the Brazilian Association of Electoral Researchers, surveyed 1,500 voters aged 16 and over by telephone from Oct. 6 to Oct. 8. The margin of error was 2.6 percentage points either way, at 95.45% confidence. The poll was registered with the TSE under protocol BR-00933/2026.
When asked to choose between the candidates, 49% picked Flávio and 44% Lula; 5% said they would cast a blank or spoiled ballot, and 3% were undecided. Among the 88% who said they would certainly vote, Flávio had 53.1% of valid votes and Lula 46.9%. Valid votes exclude blank ballots, spoiled ballots and undecided voters; Brazil’s electoral court declares the winner on that basis. Ipespe said polls can’t fully capture abstention, which can decide a close race, and noted that its results weren’t the election result.
Ipespe found Lula ahead 63% to 29% in the Northeast, while Flávio led 63% to 30% in the South and 52% to 40% in the Southeast. Respondents rated Flávio’s TV and radio campaign better than Lula’s, 43% to 34%, and his WhatsApp presence better, 44% to 30%. The runoff is scheduled for Sunday, Oct. 25, with polls closing at 5 p.m. Brasília time. Until then, campaigns compete for votes as courts decide which channels and advertisements can remain in circulation.