A judge at Brazil's electoral court for Minas Gerais state, the TRE-MG, ordered the news site ICL Notícias on Sunday (Sept. 6) to take down, within 24 hours, six posts claiming that federal lawmaker Nikolas Ferreira, a prominent conservative of the PL party running for reelection, called former banker Daniel Vorcaro "lindão" (Portuguese for "handsome") in an audio message. The preliminary injunction partly grants a right-of-reply request filed by the congressman himself. On the same day, three lawmakers from the Workers Party (PT) filed a complaint with the PGE, Brazil's electoral prosecution office, asking that Nikolas be declared ineligible for eight years over the spread of a fake document attributed to the Federal Police.
According to Poder360, the order by auxiliary judge Jair Francisco dos Santos also binds Meta, the company behind Instagram and Facebook. After examining the audio, recorded in March 2025, the judge concluded that "in none" of its passages does the lawmaker call Vorcaro, former owner of Banco Master, "lindão". The ICL report had said the recording shows Nikolas calling the banker "Dani" and signing off with "Um abraço, lindão". The judge found that the term in the farewell had been altered, which he said caused a "violation of the health and integrity of the information system", and noted that the risk of the content spreading was greater with elections approaching.
Part of the coverage stays online. Nikolas's reply request also challenged the claim that he had asked Vorcaro for the release of a mining asset, but the judge found no manifestly false information on that point in a preliminary review. In the decision, the audio shows the lawmaker approached Vorcaro to connect him with a friend who had pending issues involving a mining asset, an episode that "opens space for political debate". Other contested videos also remain up, including one in which a journalist mentions "lindão" while analyzing the facts. CNN Brasil, which confirmed the audio is authentic, reports that Nikolas acknowledged his contacts with Vorcaro, denied being close to him and said the attempt to help his friend went nowhere.
How the case began
The dispute started on Sept. 3, when ICL Notícias published stories about messages and audios exchanged between Nikolas and Vorcaro, who is under investigation in the Compliance Zero operation. One piece was headlined "Em áudio, Nikolas chama Vorcaro de 'lindão' e pede liberação de ativo de minério". Hours later, the lawmaker shared on his official Instagram and X accounts, with a combined audience of more than 27 million followers, a document that, according to the lawmakers' complaint, mimicked a Federal Police conclusion that there were no signs of crimes involving the two men. According to Metrópoles, the Federal Police denied producing the material. Nikolas later said he did not know the document was false, said he had shared content published by others and deleted the post.
Reactions and next steps
Nikolas celebrated the ruling in a video. "Why is this a victory? They obviously put it falsely in the headline to suggest a relationship I never had with Vorcaro", he said, adding that "whoever lies during a campaign answers in court". Reporter Juliana Dal Piva, who wrote the ICL story, said in a social media post that she had been "censored" by the decision and recalled that in 2022 she faced a censorship request from Flávio Bolsonaro over her reporting on his 51 properties. "Who censors whom?", she wrote. Poder360 says it sought comment from ICL Notícias and the reporter and had received no reply by publication time.
The complaint to the PGE (Procuradoria-Geral Eleitoral, the electoral arm of federal prosecution) was signed by lawmakers Rogério Correia, Lindbergh Farias and Alencar Santana. They argue the case may amount to improper use of social media and abuse of political power, and they ask for the cancellation of Nikolas's registration or diploma and for an investigation of possible electoral crimes tied to the forging and use of the document. A report attached to the complaint lists differences in content, dates, structure and identification compared with a 218-page Federal Police report, along with the absence of a signature, a civil servant's registration number, a case number and a verification code.
In the Minas Gerais electoral court, ICL Notícias has one day to file its defense; the electoral prosecutors' office then has the same period to weigh in, and the injunction itself will still be reviewed on the merits. The PGE must now decide whether to open the electoral investigation requested by the lawmakers and whether to take the case to the TSE, Brazil's top electoral court. No dates are set for those steps.