Electoral Court resolution that changed the rules on political advertising was considered too comprehensive by the technology company
O Google announced that it will not allow political advertisements to be aired during municipal elections 2024 in Brazil. The decision was taken in response to the new rules for electoral propaganda established by the TSE (Superior Electoral Court) in February. The company said it will update its Google Ads political content policy to adapt to the new guidelines, prohibiting the placement of political ads in the country. The February Electoral Court resolution that changed the rules on political advertising was considered too comprehensive by Google, which motivated the decision. There is also a requirement that companies maintain a repository of advertisements for real-time monitoring, including details such as amounts, those responsible for payment and audience profiling.
In a statement, the technology giant revealed that this update will come into force in May, in line with electoral resolutions for 2024. The TSE resolution imposes new requirements, including the mandatory ad libraries of electoral political content by platforms. “We are globally committed to supporting election integrity and will continue to engage with authorities regarding this matter,” the company said. In 2020, candidates invested around R$36 million in promoting content on the internet during the elections. The most used platforms for this purpose were Facebook, Adyen and Google.
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The resolution also prohibits companies from offering content promotion that is notoriously untrue or out of context, aiming to protect the integrity of the electoral process. In cases of irregular promotion, the Electoral Court may order platforms to broadcast informative content to clarify untrue facts, at no additional cost. Google had already included Brazil in its list of countries with transparency reports on political ads in 2022, following its own classification criteria that cover political parties, candidates and holders of federal and state positions. With the new requirements of the Electoral Court, the scope of broadcasting political-electoral content expands to include people holding elected positions, candidates, government proposals, bills and topics related to the electoral process.
Published by Felipe Cerqueira
*Report produced with the help of AI
