Candidates' profiles saw their views grow on Instagram throughout Brazil's 2026 campaign, even though a rule from the TSE, the country's Superior Electoral Court, restricts the recommendation of political accounts. The finding comes from a study by the Instituto Democracia em Xeque, a democracy-monitoring institute, reported by Folha de S.Paulo on Thursday (22). During the same campaign, Facebook, TikTok, X (formerly Twitter) and YouTube all recorded a drop in views for those profiles.
The TSE rule works like an order to close the shop window: platforms that run recommendation systems must remove from their suggestions the channels and profiles that candidates registered with the electoral courts for the official campaign period. The idea is that political content should reach people who already follow the candidate, without the algorithm pushing it to users who never asked for it.
The report analyzed 2,076 profiles of Brazilian politicians, including the six leading presidential candidates, and compared their performance with a control group of people who did not run, such as politicians who sat out the race. According to the institute, the rule was applied unevenly across platforms, and there are signs that Instagram failed to comply with the court's order. Among the federal deputies elected with large Instagram followings, the report names Lucas Pavanato (PL-SP), Ana Elisa (PT-MG), Nikolas Ferreira (PL-MG) and Erika Hilton (PSOL-SP). So far Folha is the only outlet to report on the study, and the exact percentage changes do not appear in its story.
Meta, which owns Instagram and Facebook, did not answer Folha's request for comment by publication time. The incentive at play is worth spelling out: the company's business model is selling attention. The longer a user scrolls, the more ads they see, and political content is among the most reactive material on social media. Pulling political profiles out of recommendations means giving up part of that engagement.
What we still do not know
The study shows views went up, but not through which door: improper recommendation, a push from Reels, or spontaneous sharing between users are all possible. Meta has yet to give its side, and views do not measure votes. The case lands at a moment of mounting pressure on the company: this week, the Electoral Public Prosecutor's Office said Meta failed to comply with part of the TSE's orders and asked the court to impose a fine, according to G1.
For voters, the practical takeaway is simple: what shows up in your feed is not a neutral picture of the campaign. If a politician you do not follow keeps appearing, it is worth asking where the push came from. It is also worth watching whether the TSE accepts the fine request and demands a technical explanation from Meta about how its recommendation system behaved during the election period.