Nikolas Ferreira and André Janones campaign through social-media profiles not registered with Brazil’s electoral court

Nikolas Ferreira and André Janones have continued campaigning through social-media profiles that they had not identified to Brazil’s Superior Electoral Court, according to the same issue involving presidential candidate Renan Santos.

Ferreira registered his candidacy on Aug. 7 but only asked the court on Aug. 26 to add his Kwai and YouTube profiles, along with his official website. The TSE has approved his candidacy but has not yet authorized the use of those networks. He has nevertheless continued to campaign, including by posting daily videos on YouTube.

Janones faces a similar situation. He has used his X account to campaign and attack opponents without identifying it to electoral authorities. After the decision against Santos became public, his campaign filed a petition at 5:25 p.m. on Monday, Aug. 31, seeking to include his X, YouTube and Kwai profiles.

The registration requirement affects how platforms recommend political accounts. Under TSE rules, platforms must remove officially identified candidate profiles from recommendation systems. Accounts that candidates have not registered do not face that filter and can therefore be recommended to voters by the algorithm.

The issue has also drawn scrutiny from Justice André Mendonça. He asked X for explanations after Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva’s campaign said the filter applied to about 600 candidacies but excluded profiles belonging to more than 1,500 candidates. The campaigns of Ferreira and Janones did not respond before publication.