Toffoli reverses course and clears Renan Santos’ campaign on registered social-media accounts

Brazilian Supreme Court Justice Dias Toffoli has lifted restrictions on Renan Santos’ presidential campaign, allowing it to advertise through internet addresses already registered with the Superior Electoral Court, receive campaign funds and take part in debates on radio, television, podcasts and other media.

The campaign had been suspended online after electoral authorities found that Santos had not registered all his social-media accounts with DivulgaCand, as required by an electoral court rule. Folha had reported that he omitted several accounts when registering his candidacy, sought to correct the omission only after the official campaign began and left those profiles exposed to algorithmic recommendations that were unavailable to competitors.

Under the electoral court’s rule, platforms must remove officially reported candidate profiles from recommendation systems. That prevents their posts from being shown to users who do not already follow them.

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voters’ right to be exposed to legitimate means of persuasion

Toffoli’s new decision says the campaign had reported two profiles, but authorities found indications of irregularities because 16 other profiles remained unreported 12 days after the registration request. The judge said the earlier restrictions sought to protect equality among candidates and “voters’ right to be exposed to legitimate means of persuasion.” He linked that goal to constitutional protections for the normality, morality and legitimacy of elections, including protection from economic power and abusive practices in the online environment.

The decision drew criticism from judges within the electoral court, who argued that the issue should go before the full panel. Santos’ defence requested that Toffoli’s interim order be reviewed by the panel and said the campaign acted in good faith. It argued that the accounts were reported later because the campaign only subsequently decided to use them for electoral advertising. Toffoli said parties have a legal duty to report all electronic addresses used during the campaign, and that the omission was more than a formal defect because unreported networks could benefit from opaque algorithms and create a risk of more serious violations.

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The networks that were not reported benefit from opaque algorithms