On the stage of the Liberal Party convention in July, there was a man who could not be there. Jair Bolsonaro's face, blown up on a giant screen, addressed the party faithful on behalf of a man who is in prison; around him, supporters raised their phones to record the avatar built with artificial intelligence. By the end of next week, the TSE, Brazil's Superior Electoral Court, is expected to decide the fate of that image. According to Folha de S.Paulo, the court plans to hear the case with a majority expected to rule against the use of the tool by the campaign of Senator Flavio Bolsonaro, the former president's son and the party's candidate for president.

The justices are expected to reaffirm that deepfakes are banned in Brazilian elections, whether to boost or to attack a candidacy, and want to set a doctrine separating that material from other AI-generated content, such as illustrations, memes, caricatures and animations, which are allowed under certain requirements. The main yardstick is the degree of realism: if the content can create a false perception of authenticity and confuse voters, it will be treated as a deepfake and barred; if its fanciful or allegorical nature is evident, it will be considered synthetic content, subject to rules such as an AI label, the newspaper reports.

From a musical satire to a court doctrine

The doctrine now heading to the full bench grew out of a decision by Justice Andre Mendonça. On August 20, he ordered the removal of videos posted by the profile "Brasil Satira do Poder," whose administrator remains unknown, in which a deepfake of Flavio appears alongside former banker Daniel Vorcaro, of Banco Master, in scenes tied to receiving or transporting money. The takedown request came from the PL itself, and the material, posted on August 14, carried the caption "V for Vorcaro! The musical satire everyone is talking about!"

"The images used in the video do not present themselves as drawings, caricatures or overtly fanciful graphic representations," Mendonça wrote, according to G1, adding that the material realistically reproduces the senator's features while "attributing to him gestures, interactions and situations that did not occur."

Mendonça also said that labeling the content as satire is not enough to escape the ban: humor can weigh in the analysis of the message's meaning, but it does not erase the synthetic nature of material that places a real person, in photorealistic fashion, in situations that never happened.

TSE president Kassio Nunes Marques intends to bring both cases to trial together: the complaint filed by President Lula's PT-led coalition against the avatar shown at the convention and the case carrying Mendonça's doctrine. The issue turned tense after Kassio arranged a closed-door meeting with his fellow justices to discuss it, a move that caused friction inside the court, according to Folha. Four of the seven full justices heard by the newspaper indicate there is a majority to bar the campaign from using the avatar.

The ruling should draw the line for what Brazil's 2026 campaign can fabricate with artificial intelligence. Until then, the scene that marked the PL convention hangs suspended: the lit screen, the jailed former president's giant face, the crowd filming. Next week, the court will say whether that digital apparition was lawful advertising or forbidden ground.