Why digital policy and regulation will be central to Lula’s fourth term in office

Commenting on the future of digital platform regulation in Brazil following the election, Dr Beatriz Kira, from the University of Exeter Law School, said:

“The regulation of digital platforms featured prominently in Lula’s victory speech. It was significant that he chose to raise platform regulation at such a moment, but not surprising, given the role that platforms, particularly social media and messaging apps, had played in the lead up to the knife edge second round of Brazil’s presidential election.

“On the one hand, pundits have credited Lula’s supporters’ digital campaigning and mobilisation with the historic turnaround that brought millions more people to the polls than in the first round and gave the veteran candidate a record vote total of more than 64 million. The WhatsApp channel ‘Exército do Lula’ (‘Lula’s Army’), repurposed and expanded after the first round, gathered more than 10 million followers. Under the coordination of Congressman André Janones, it helped disseminate campaign messages across platforms.

“On the other hand, digital platforms were the subject of formal complaints that they were favouring the defeated right wing candidate, Flávio Bolsonaro. Users and Lula’s campaign accused Meta’s platforms of bias, arguing that their content moderation and recommendation systems were promoting content favourable to Bolsonaro to drive engagement. Perhaps most seriously, Meta’s AI was reported to refuse to create images in support of Lula while agreeing to create content in support of Bolsonaro. Meta acknowledged the problem, although it described it as a ‘technical flaw’ in its systems. These complaints also drew the electoral courts into the campaign – including a controversial (and mistaken) decision by Justice Nuno Marques to block the ‘Exército de Lula’ channel, a decision that was later overturned.

“The campaign and its aftermath brought three key issues, all central to my research on platform regulation, to the centre of Brazilian political debate. The first is the need to hold platforms’ informational power to account. This requires public, democratic forms of regulation that go beyond voluntary arrangements led by the platforms themselves, which have proved inadequate and dangerous to individual rights, democratic principles and the rule of law. My work on the role of electoral courts in responding to the growing relevance of digital campaigns, including through new rules against political deepfakes and demands for greater transparency from platforms, shows that strengthening electoral law is part of the solution, but will not be sufficient on its own.

“My recently published research on Brazil’s legal responses to platform regulation has also considered the consequential decision by Brazil’s Supreme Court last year. The Court limited the longstanding legal protection platforms had enjoyed from liability for third party content and required more proactive, preventive measures from technology companies in specific circumstances. It also recognised a duty of care to prevent the mass circulation of certain gravely illegal content. Yet this remains an incomplete legal response. Brazil urgently needs new laws and empowered regulators to supervise platforms effectively, while safeguarding fundamental principles such as freedom of expression.

“The second issue is that platforms’ informational power fuels their economic power, which in turn amplifies their informational power. Any effective response to the myriad threats these platforms pose to democracies must also tackle their market power. Brazil’s competition law can only go so far. It is not currently equipped to respond quickly and flexibly to the power of large technology companies. This power rests on their control of interconnected technological infrastructures and data on which smaller businesses and users depend, and is reinforced by market dynamics and network effects that reward bigness. Brazil has already developed a strong proposal for digital markets regulation: Bill No 4675/2025, currently before the Chamber of Deputies. My research shows that it draws on and adapts lessons from international experience, including the UK’s Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act and the EU’s Digital Markets Act. It offers Lula a low-hanging fruit, a feasible first step towards countering the corporate power exercised by digital platforms during the election and advancing greater accountability.

“The third issue is the regulation of artificial intelligence. Lula has expressed a desire to invest in infrastructure so that Brazil will not be dependent on AI models developed in the United States or China. But investment in AI and the pursuit of its many benefits must be accompanied by legal safeguards. These should mitigate risks, protect creators’ livelihoods and ensure fair treatment and remuneration for those who provide the inputs on which AI depends or whose work competes with its outputs. Not a mean feat, but here again Brazil already has a bill before Congress to regulate AI, which I have previously argued seeks to adapt the EU model to the Brazilian context.

“Digital policy and regulation will be central to Lula’s fourth term in office, but this may prove his most challenging yet. He will need to advance a broad agenda while sustaining the coalition that returned him to office, in a Congress where right wing forces are particularly strong. Yet the central questions of the digital agenda should concern politicians of every political orientation. Accountable and transparent platforms, competitive digital markets that can support Brazil’s digital economy, and AI that benefits Brazilians form an agenda that could bring the right and left together for Brazil’s benefit.”