It sounds like a plot from a political drama, but it really happened this Friday (28): Brazil's Superior Electoral Court (TSE) summoned X, the former Twitter, to explain failures in the platform's algorithmic filter. The request came from President Lula's reelection campaign and was granted by Justice André Mendonça, as revealed by the Painel column in Folha de S.Paulo.

Under the ruling, the platform has only 24 hours to formally explain the possible favoring of candidates in the 2026 race. The details were first reported by Bela Megale's blog in O Globo.

The complaint filed by Lula's campaign says X's recommendation system applied the filter to 665 candidate accounts, while more than 1,500 accounts stayed beyond the mechanism's reach. In the campaign's reading, that created an illegal imbalance in the visibility of candidacies right at the start of the official advertising period.

Mendonça also ordered X to detail how the algorithm works, preserve all related technical data, lists and codes, and allow a judicial audit. According to Brasil 247, the measure aims to guarantee transparency and equal conditions in the digital battle for votes.

The episode landed on the very day Brazil's mandatory free election airtime begins on TV and radio, with Lula and Senator Flávio Bolsonaro (PL-RJ) leading the presidential race. In other words: the fight for your vote now plays out on two screens, the phone and the living room TV.

To follow the next chapters: X's reply to the court is due within 24 hours, and election ads air daily on open TV and radio until October, when Brazilians head to the polls.