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Oct 13, 2026
TSE blocks misleading rally video but leaves room for criticism
Lula’s campaign says opponents used unrelated footage to smear supporters, while Bolsonaro allies argue that authentic videos of damage at the rally should remain visible. The TSE’s interim ruling draws a line between decontextualized claims and political criticism grounded in real events.
The dispute over Lula’s Avenida Paulista rally has become a test of where electoral authorities draw the line between political criticism and misleading content.
Lula’s campaign asked the Superior Electoral Court (TSE) to act after posts by Flávio Bolsonaro’s allies allegedly paired old images of people using drugs with the rally’s participants and also attributed vandalism to the Workers’ Party. The campaign said the material had reached at least 1 million Instagram views and sought removal orders, restrictions on identical future posts and possible penalties for platforms that failed to comply.1
A TSE justice, Marco Aurélio Bellizze, ordered the immediate removal of posts using footage recorded in Chile to portray Lula supporters as drug users. According to the decision, the image of a red-haired woman making gestures associated with cocaine use had appeared online on October 10 — a day before the São Paulo rally. Bellizze described the reuse as “serious manipulation through decontextualization” and said the issue became more serious when paired with broad claims about drug use and an explicit electoral appeal.2
The order, however, was narrower than Lula’s campaign requested. Bellizze declined to block entire accounts or prohibit future posts, stressing that the injunction did not curb free political criticism or the sharing of genuine footage from the event; it targeted material deemed knowingly false or taken out of context.2
On the other side, federal lawmaker Nikolas Ferreira rejected the suggestion that all disputed rally footage was fabricated. He said a video showing people on the glass roof of the Trianon-Masp metro station was real: “It is not fake.” Authorities separately recorded graffiti, stickers and damaged glass at several metro stations after the demonstration, with police expected to review security footage.3
Supporters of the opposition have also framed the court challenge as an attempt to suppress criticism. Commentator Rodrigo Constantino wrote that the PT “plays too dirty” and accused it of spreading “Fake News,” without addressing the Chilean footage identified in the ruling.
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