Brazil’s Electoral Court Signs Pacts With Tech Firms to Fight Election Disinformation

Overview

• On Thursday, July 16, the Tribunal Superior Eleitoral (TSE) formalized memoranda of understanding with seven major platforms and adherence terms with three AI firms to strengthen coordination against harmful electoral content.
• The companies that signed include Kwai, Telegram, Meta, TikTok, Google, X and LinkedIn, while ElevenLabs, OpenAI and Anthropic joined the court’s anti-disinformation program and Microsoft is expected to formalize its participation soon.
• Signatories committed to improve tools to detect and rapidly remove misleading posts, curb coordinated inauthentic behavior such as bot networks, and adopt measures to prevent AI abuses like voice cloning and sexualized synthetic images.
• The TSE is finalizing a draft portaria that would require providers with more than 5 million monthly users in Brazil to submit detailed compliance plans, allow the court to open a supervisory regime for missed deadlines, and create a commission to monitor platforms during high-risk periods.
• If implemented, the rules could speed removals and increase transparency for users and judges but are likely to prompt operational and legal pushback from some companies and will be tested after the court’s August recess when plans are formally requested.