Brazilian electoral campaigns in 2026 have already declared at least R$288.7 million in direct payments to Meta, the owner of Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp. The figure is more than double the R$129 million declared in the 2022 national election, according to a survey by g1 based on campaign finance filings with the Superior Electoral Court (TSE), Brazil's top electoral authority.
The data is still partial. Candidates eliminated in the first round have until November 3 to file their final accounts. Those still in the runoff, including Lula (PT) and Flávio Bolsonaro (PL), have until November 14. Even so, the total is already a record. Meta has been campaigns' top vendor since 2022, and the partial 2026 figure is 1,171% above the R$22.7 million declared in 2018.
Meta's share grows every election
The company's slice of all declared campaign spending has risen steadily, the survey shows: 0.7% in 2018, 1% in 2020, 1.9% in 2022, 3% in 2024 and 6% in the partial 2026 data. Paid boosting of posts, in which campaigns pay platforms to expand the reach of publications, has gained weight in budgets. It went from 2.5% of total campaign spending in 2018 to 8.9% this year. Under Brazilian electoral law, only candidates, parties and coalitions may buy boosting for campaign advertising. Paying influencers, including sponsored posts known as publis, is banned.
Among parties, the PL, the party of former president Jair Bolsonaro, has spent the most directly with Meta since 2022. In 2026 it has already declared R$63.7 million, nearly four times its spending in the previous national election. Next come the PT, with R$37.9 million, the PSD, with R$30.3 million, and União Brasil, with R$23.3 million. In 2018, the top spender was the PSD, with R$3.4 million.
Among individual campaigns, Flávio Bolsonaro (PL) contracted the most with Meta in 2026: R$7.45 million, nearly triple the R$2.59 million declared by Lula (PT), his rival in the October runoff. In 2018, no candidate spent more than R$1 million with the company. In 2022, four did. In 2026, 24 already have, totaling R$41 million.
g1 cross-checked expense files from the TSE's open data portal with DivulgaCand, the court's live spending platform, using records generated on October 18. Only payments made directly to the tax ID of Facebook Serviços Online do Brasil Ltda were counted. The figure is therefore a floor: it excludes spending by party directorates, ads paid by supporters and contracts routed through advertising agencies.
The record spending comes amid a court fight over the platform's conduct. On Monday (19), TSE justice Marco Aurélio Bellizze gave Meta 24 hours to prove it is complying with the court's order to guarantee equal treatment in the distribution of political content and in the airing of campaign ads during the runoff. Both the Lula and Flávio campaigns filed complaints with the electoral courts arguing their content had been harmed on the company's platforms. On the same day, the electoral court's inspector general, justice Ricardo Villas Bôas Cueva, barred congressman Nikolas Ferreira (PL-MG) and influencer Pablo Marçal from reposting banned content, under a fine of R$50,000 per post, and ordered Meta and X to suspend paid boosting of both men's accounts until the end of the runoff. The next milestones are the final accounting deadlines: November 3 for first-round candidates and November 14 for runoff candidates, when the total paid to Meta is expected to rise.