Members of Dublin’s Brazilian community protested on Friday, 16 October 2026, outside Meta’s Ballsbridge office with signs reading “Hands off Brazilian elections” and “Meta, stay out of it”. The Irish Times reported that the demonstration called for transparency after President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva accused the company of using algorithms and AI restrictions to favour his runoff opponent, Flávio Bolsonaro.

The runoff is on 25 October. In the first round on 4 October, Flávio won 47% of valid votes and Lula 45%. More than 20% of voters did not cast a ballot, the highest first-round presidential abstention since 1998. Flávio is the son of former president Jair Bolsonaro, who is serving a 27-year sentence after being convicted over a plot to overturn the 2022 result — a conviction, not an open allegation.

Brazil’s Superior Electoral Court (TSE) ordered Meta on Thursday to give the two candidates equal treatment. Justice Marco Aurélio Bellizze required, under a daily fine of 500,000 reais, that the platform not selectively cut distribution, recommendations or search for electoral content and that Meta AI apply the same rules. G1 reported the order; on Friday a TSE majority voted to keep it.

Meta denied favouring Flávio. It told The New York Times it was unfortunate that minor technical issues were being spun into a political narrative. On Friday it said it takes no side in any election and described a mistaken, slightly more than one-hour shutdown of Lula’s ad account on 23 September, plus a gap in Meta AI protections.

Bellizze wrote that the measures are preventive, apply to both campaigns until the end of the runoff and do not amount to a finding of deliberate bias. Lula’s campaign also questioned 255 accounts it considers inauthentic. Those are campaign claims, not court findings.

The Brazilian embassy estimates about 80,000 Brazilians in Ireland, with more than 16,700 registered to vote. The Dublin protest is civic action, not an Irish court ruling. This article does not treat Meta’s algorithms as proven interference.

Image: Alex Sirac, interior of Meta offices in Dublin, CC BY 4.0, Wikimedia Commons; archive interior, not a photograph of the 16 October 2026 protest.

Sources consulted: Hands off: Brazilians protest outside Meta in Dublin over claims of election bias — The Irish Times; TSE determina que Meta não interfira em distribuição de conteúdo político-eleitoral — G1.