Minister André Mendonça, from the Superior Electoral Court (TSE), determined that platform X has 24 hours to explain to the Court how the mechanism adopted by the social network works to prevent posts from candidates from being recommended to users who do not follow their profiles during the electoral period. The decision was made after President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva's (PT) coalition pointed out a possible flaw in the system announced by the platform.
According to the action presented, the code made publicly available by X includes 665 accounts, but a cross-reference with the official social media registry of candidacies would have identified another 1,559 accounts that would not be included in the filter. The disparity between the numbers raised doubts about the effectiveness of the mechanism implemented by the platform.
Electoral legislation requires platforms that use recommendation systems to exclude from these mechanisms the results, channels, and profiles informed to the Electoral Justice, as well as the content published by them, except for exceptions provided by the rules. Failure to comply with this obligation may result in sanctions against the company.
On the 14th, X announced the implementation of a mechanism to comply with the legal requirement, but the government coalition questioned the real scope of the filter, arguing that several official accounts of candidates were not being covered by the system.
