A deluge of AI-generated content and unfair treatment by social media platforms could prove pivotal in Brazil鈥檚 presidential election, according to supporters of the left-wing incumbent Luiz In谩cio Lula da Silva.
Lula will face off against right-wing challenger Fl谩vio Bolsonaro on 25 October in the second round of the contest. Lula鈥檚 campaign has Meta 鈥� which owns WhatsApp, Instagram and Facebook 鈥� of favouring Bolsonaro by suspending Lula鈥檚 campaign advertising account, suppressing posts and blocking AI-generated content.
Brazil鈥檚 electoral prosecutors have said with court orders to ensure equal treatment of both candidates, while United Nations human rights experts possible unequal treatment of the two campaigns.
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Images have widely circulated showing Meta AI, a chatbot integrated into WhatsApp, refusing to generate campaign posters for Lula, while instantly producing an image for 鈥淔l谩vio鈥�.
Meta said 鈥渃laims that we are favoring or interfering on behalf of any candidate or political group are false and unfounded鈥�. It said Lula鈥檚 account was suspended for 1 hour by mistake and that its systems blocked prompts referring to the names 鈥淟ula鈥� and 鈥淏olsonaro鈥�, but not the common first names Luiz or Fl谩vio.
Lula鈥檚 campaign remains unconvinced. It submitted screenshots to the electoral court showing Meta AI repeatedly assigning Bolsonaro鈥檚 electoral number, 22, to generic, fictional politicians and allegedly translating 鈥淔l谩vio futuro presidi谩rio鈥� (鈥淔l谩vio future prisoner鈥�) as 鈥淔l谩vio future president鈥�.
Determining whether the discrepancies are deliberate is impossible because Meta鈥檚 systems are opaque, says at the University of Virginia. 鈥淏ut when a technical glitch tends to repeat its outcome, it鈥檚 very hard to accept that this is just a technical failure.鈥�
Lula finished behind Bolsonaro in the first round of voting, but polls show the gap is narrowing. The comeback has been partly credited to Lula鈥檚 Army, an intensive online campaign in which 8 million WhatsApp channel subscribers receive daily tasks, such as posting photographs on Instagram posing with their fingers forming an L.
This year鈥檚 general election is Brazil鈥檚 first since large language models (LLMs) became widely popular, and it is awash with AI-generated content. Experts say Latin America鈥檚 largest democracy offers a glimpse of what is to come for AI in politics.
of AI-generated or manipulated election content ahead of the first round, primarily on Facebook and Instagram, 60 per cent of it unlabelled. found that 26 Meta advertising accounts appeared to sidestep restrictions on foreign-funded political advertising by posting AI-generated videos, including one depicting Bolsonaro and Argentina鈥檚 president Javier Milei freeing Brazil from communists.
Meta鈥檚 independent oversight board says the company鈥檚 .
鈥淚t鈥檚 very worrying,鈥� says Nemer. 鈥淪o much of our political campaign dynamics have been transferred to privatised companies that we have no idea how they operate.鈥�
Regulating AI in political campaigns won鈥檛 be as simple as it seems, says at InternetLab, a Brazilian digital rights non-profit that studied how eight major AI chatbots respond to questions about Brazil鈥檚 election.
Its report found that chatbots sometimes refused genuine questions about candidates, referring users to official electoral websites, but would agree to draft misleading claims questioning the integrity of elections for use in campaigning.
Massaro says clearer safeguards for LLMs are needed, but first their objectives must be defined.
鈥淎re the safeguards working? That鈥檚 one question. But working for what, because it depends on what your goals are,鈥� she says. 鈥淚s the solution to send people away without providing any kind of information? Is this what we want?鈥�
