The Superior Electoral Court (TSE) released on Monday (19) its initial proposal for electoral propaganda rules in the 2026 elections, without expanding norms on artificial intelligence despite the technology's evolution since the 2024 vote. The proposal limits social media profile removals to cases of proven fake users or crimes. The text will undergo public debates, with suggestions until January 30 and hearings in February, before plenary voting.
The TSE presented its initial draft to regulate electoral propaganda in the 2026 elections, maintaining 2024 prohibitions against deepfakes, manipulated content to spread untrue facts, and robot use to contact voters. It also preserves the requirement to identify AI-generated content. Despite concerns over hyper-realistic videos that could mislead voters, some ministers view current rules as sufficient, while others advocate updates to address technological advances.
The proposal introduces limits on social media profile removals, allowing them only for proven fake users, such as bots or profiles of non-existent people, or when crimes are committed. This aims to balance freedom of expression and legal certainty, according to electoral lawyer Francisco Almeida Prado Filho: "It makes sense that profile removals occur only in exceptional cases".
However, experts criticize the approach. Francisco Brito Cruz, a law professor at IDP, warns that the restriction could prevent removing profiles with irregular propaganda, such as gossip or betting accounts. Bruno Bioni from Data Privacy Brasil sees the proposal as timid and suggests obligations for AI provider companies, beyond social networks. Paloma Rocillo from the Iris Institute points to a lack of progress in transparency and oversight, amid no approved congressional law on the topic.
The process includes suggestion submissions from January 19 to 30, public hearings from February 3 to 5 on topics like propaganda and electoral offenses, led by Minister Kassio Nunes Marques. A potential improvement is streamlining complaints and interactions with big techs, influenced by the STF's ruling on the Internet Civil Framework.
