Brazil Prosecutors Ask Court to Make Meta Block a 2018 Fake Ballot Video on WhatsApp
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Key Facts
- —The country Brazil held the first round of its 2026 general election on Sunday 4 October. Every vote is cast on an electronic voting machine.
- —What happened In a request filed late on 3 October and made public on election day, electoral prosecutors asked the electoral court to order Meta to stop a false video about the machines spreading on WhatsApp, and to fine the company.
- —Who is involved The Electoral Public Prosecutor’s Office (MPE), the Superior Electoral Court (TSE) and Meta, which owns WhatsApp. The video first circulated in 2018.
- —What it means for you A clip of a self-described police sergeant claiming a machine held votes before voting began is a recycled 2018 hoax. Electoral officials explained that case at the time.
- —Still open As of Sunday evening, no TSE ruling on the request had been reported, and Meta had not commented publicly in the reports reviewed.
Brazil’s electoral prosecutors went to court on the eve of the vote over a fake ballot video on WhatsApp. They asked the Superior Electoral Court (TSE), which runs Brazilian elections, to order Meta to stop the clip from being forwarded.
The request, sent on Saturday night and made public on Sunday 4 October as Brazilians voted for president, governors and Congress, also seeks a fine against Meta. The video, which questions the safety of the electronic voting machines, first spread in 2018 and resurfaced this year.
What the Prosecutors Asked For
The Electoral Public Prosecutor’s Office (MPE) is the branch of the federal prosecution service that polices elections. In its filing it accuses Meta, WhatsApp’s owner, of irregular electoral propaganda, Brasil 247 reported.
It asks for an injunction requiring Meta to adopt technical measures that block new sends of the video. It also asks the court to impose a fine, O Antagonista and Brasil 247 reported, without giving an amount.
The filing, signed by Deputy Electoral Prosecutor-General Alexandre Espinosa Bravo Barbosa, also asks Meta to identify, if technically possible, the accounts that started the spread, Valor and UOL reported.
The legal basis is TSE Resolution 23.714 of 2022. It bans spreading “knowingly untrue or seriously decontextualised facts” that affect the integrity of the electoral process.
“The transmission of disinformative, untrue and decontextualised content, without minimal factual basis, constitutes the spread of a knowingly untrue fact,” it wrote. It added that such content could compromise “the stability of the electoral process”.
What the Fake Ballot Video Claims
In the clip, a man presents himself as a sergeant of a “Military Police of the Federal Institute”. He says a TSE representative called him to a polling place.
He claims that during a check, a machine that should have been empty already showed printed votes. The prosecutors call the story false and say it aims to make the machines and the electoral courts look vulnerable.
The fact-checking agency Aos Fatos traced the footage to the Federal District in the first round of 2018. Electoral officials said then that a poll worker’s lack of technical knowledge caused the confusion, not fraud.
The regional electoral court confirmed the machine’s start-of-day zero report and results were issued unaltered, Aos Fatos reported.
A Second Request Over Embassy Posts
The same office filed a separate request on Sunday, Metrópoles reported. It targets posts linking the temporary closure of US and Australian diplomatic posts in Brazil to terrorist threats and an imminent coup.
The posts appeared on the Facebook pages of five candidates for federal and state legislatures and on one X account. The US closures were covered in US Consulates in Brazil Halt Services Before the Vote.
Metrópoles and Brasil em Folhas quoted the prosecutors on the limits of speech. “There is no way to confuse freedom of expression with the possibility of spreading knowingly untrue facts,” they wrote.
How It Fits the Court’s Warnings
The filing came a day after TSE president Kassio Nunes Marques urged voters to check before sharing. That address is covered in Brazil Judge Warns Voters of Election Disinformation.
Where he appealed to voters, the request over the fake ballot video turns to the platform carrying it. Polls closed at 17:00 Brasília time on Sunday and counting began.
What Is Not Yet Known
No TSE decision on either request had been reported by Sunday evening. Which judge will rule, and how fast, was not stated in the reports reviewed.
Meta had not responded publicly in those reports. WhatsApp messages are end-to-end encrypted, so it is unclear what technical measures the company could apply to one clip.
The size of any fine and how widely the video spread on Sunday have also not been disclosed.
Sources: Brasil 247 (4 Oct 2026); O Antagonista (4 Oct 2026); Metrópoles (4 Oct 2026); Brasil em Folhas (4 Oct 2026); Tribuna do Sertão (4 Oct 2026); Valor (4 Oct 2026); UOL (4 Oct 2026); Aos Fatos (2020 fact-check of the 2018 video).
This article was drafted with automated assistance and reviewed before publication. How we use AI · Report an error · Editorial responsibility: Matthias Camenzind, Editor-in-Chief