Fake Aparecida Posts Reach Brazil’s Full Electoral Court as Mendonça Votes to Keep Ban
ELECTION 2026 · BRAZIL
Key Facts
- —The country Brazil, Latin America’s largest democracy, elects a president on Sunday 4 October. Its Superior Electoral Court (TSE) runs the vote; the Supreme Court (STF) is a separate body.
- —What happened On Wednesday 30 September the TSE’s seven judges began an online vote on Justice André Mendonça’s takedown orders. Mendonça voted first, to uphold them (Agência Brasil, Estadão).
- —Who is involved Candidate Flávio Bolsonaro sought the orders; comedian Antonio Tabet contested them. Six judges, including TSE president Kassio Nunes Marques, had not voted by midday (Agência Brasil, 30 September).
- —What it means for you Posts claiming as fact that Flávio plans to demote Our Lady of Aparecida stay down for now. Satire, criticism and religious debate remain allowed, Mendonça wrote.
- —Still open The result, due by 23:59 Brasília time on 30 September, and when the Supreme Court rules on the conflicting Dino and Fux decisions.
Brazil’s electoral court began voting on Wednesday on whether fake Aparecida posts about presidential candidate Flávio Bolsonaro must stay offline. The first vote, from the judge who ordered them removed, backed his own ruling.
The virtual session opened shortly before 10am and closes at 23:59 Brasília time, Metrópoles and Agência Brasil reported. It moves a clash between single judges to a seven-member bench, four days before the vote.
What the court is voting on
The Superior Electoral Court (TSE) runs and polices Brazilian elections. It has seven members: three Supreme Court justices, two from the Superior Court of Justice (STJ) and two lawyers, Estadão reported.
On 25 September Mendonça, the court’s vice-president, ordered the posts removed. They claimed Flávio, the former president’s eldest son, planned to strip the saint of her patron title.
Flávio denies it, and Estadão and other outlets describe the claim as false. His first order covered 1,125 posts, Estadão reported. A larger count of 2,086 posts from 1,674 accounts came from Flávio’s lawyers, Times Brasil reported.
The full bench now decides whether to confirm the two orders Mendonça issued alone. Until it rules, his orders remain in force, Agência Brasil reported.
What Mendonça argued
Mendonça rejected the charge of censorship in his vote. “Faith and Our Lady of Aparecida were not on trial,” he wrote, only a false claim spread mid-campaign, Estadão reported.
He found no bill, statement or act by the candidate that supported the claim, Migalhas reported. Criticism, satire, opinion and religious debate stay protected, he stressed.
His orders hit only specific links, not profiles, accounts or channels, according to Estadão and Migalhas. Where a platform has reasonable doubt that a post repeats the core falsehood, it should leave it up.
He cited Supreme Court precedents that let judges order platforms to remove repeat copies of content already ruled unlawful. No new ruling is needed for each copy, he argued, according to Migalhas.
On Tuesday he had already narrowed the order himself. He cleared a post by federal deputy Erika Hilton, finding it did not repeat the false claim, Agência Brasil reported.
How the case reached the full court
The claim began spreading online on the night of 23 September, Correio do Povo reported. Within days it had become a patron-saint row that pulled in bishops and judges.
On Sunday Supreme Court Justice Flávio Dino voided Mendonça’s orders at Tabet’s request. Justice Luiz Fux then suspended Dino’s ruling and revived the ban.
Supreme Court president Edson Fachin had been expected to put both rulings to his court on Wednesday. He left them off the agenda and set no date, Valor reported.
Nunes Marques then scheduled the electoral court’s own vote, Estadão and Folha PE reported. On Monday he had complained to Fachin of “undue overlap of jurisdiction” by Supreme Court justices, G1 reported.
What Is Not Yet Known
By early afternoon six judges had yet to vote, Agência Brasil reported. They are Nunes Marques, Dias Toffoli, Estela Aranha, Floriano de Azevedo Marques, Ricardo Villas Bôas Cueva and Sebastião Reis Júnior.
Four of the seven votes would form a majority either way. Whether the fake Aparecida posts stay down through Sunday depends on that count.
Fachin has not said when the Supreme Court will weigh the Dino and Fux rulings. The case does not change the voting rules or Sunday’s date.
Sources: Agência Brasil (30 Sep 2026); Agência Brasil (29 Sep 2026); Estadão (25 Sep 2026); Times Brasil (27 Sep 2026); G1 (28 Sep 2026); Estadão (30 Sep 2026); Estadão (30 Sep 2026); Correio do Povo (30 Sep 2026); Folha PE (30 Sep 2026); Folha PE (29 Sep 2026); Migalhas (30 Sep 2026); Metrópoles (30 Sep 2026); Valor (29 Sep 2026).
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