Mendonça bans PT from promoting video about Flávio

The vice-president of the High Electoral Court (TSE), André Mendonça, decided on Sunday (11) to ban President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva’s campaign to promote a video in which he states that the senator and candidate for the Presidency of the Republic, Flávio Bolsonaro (PL-RJ), is against the 6x1 scale. The preliminary decision responds to a campaign request from Flávio Bolsonaro, which claimed that the content "disqualifies" the candidate.

In the 30-second video, one actress claims that Flávio Bolsonaro would be against the end of the 6x1 work scale and that the Partido Liberal, to which it is affiliated, would be conducting a campaign to prevent the measure from being approved. The piece was the target of paid promotion on social networks, which motivated the action of the candidate’s defense.

The request of Bolsonaro's campaign

The decision comes after a Flávio Bolsonaro campaign request for suspension of content that “disqualifies” the candidate. The decision was preliminary and still needs to be endorsed by the plenary of the TSE. The defense argued that the negatively driven propaganda violates electoral legislation.

According to Bolsonaro’s defense, Lula’s campaign made two announcements that together “recorded between 715,000 and 820,000 impressions, with the sum of the reported reaches of 369.144 accounts” and estimate that they were spent between R$ 10 and R$ 15,000 on disclosures, between September 12 and 14. The numbers indicate the extent of the circulation of the content.

Justification of the Minister

"The use of financial resources to broaden the diffusion of predominantly negative message against adversary candidacy finds express closure in electoral legislation," said Mendonça. The minister stressed that the promotion of negative propaganda is prohibited, regardless of the veracity of the allegations.

Mendonça considers that the video stopped being promoted on social networks after the deadline and that, therefore, the decision will only be valid if the Lula campaign wants to re-propagate the video through paid promotions and not for organic dissemination. In other words, the spontaneous publication of the content is not prohibited.

Another decision against the CUT

In another lawsuit, Minister André Mendonça also decided that the Single Workers' Central (CUT) removes five videos against Flávio Bolsonaro from its official pages. According to the minister, an institutional profile cannot disseminate electoral propaganda, regardless of the veracity of the content.

“The five posts totaled more than 29,000 likes and approximately 4,500 comments, indicating significant circulation on the Instagram platform,” he said. The measure reinforces TSE’s understanding of the restriction of electoral content in entity profiles.

Context and next steps

The decision of Mendonça is preliminary and will still be analyzed by the plenary of TSE. In the meantime, Lula’s campaign is prevented from boosting the video, but can keep it available organically. The case adds to other judicial disputes involving electoral propaganda in the presidential elections.

The Boca no Trombone Portal will continue to monitor the unfolding of this and other TSE decisions. For more news about national politics, visit our Politics publishing house.

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