TikTok ignored rule with ads for Lula and Bolsonaro – 08/14/2023 – Politics

Political ads on TikTok targeting Brazilian voters in Portugal circulated during the 2022 election campaign.

The videos with requests for votes for the then candidates Jair Bolsonaro and Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva were paid for by TikTok users in Portugal, and not by the parties or candidates, which violates electoral legislation.

Additionally, TikTok, in its terms of use, states that it does not accept political ads.

According to a preliminary survey by NetLab at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, based on the TikTok ad library, which has just been launched in the European Union, the ads circulated on TikTok from October 4 to November 1, 2022.

There were videos asking for votes for Lula or Bolsonaro, extolling the candidate’s qualities and criticizing the opponent.

TikTok’s terms of use prohibit serving ads with political content.

“Sharing political views and engaging in political discussion is permitted if it is organic content, but may not be used in paid advertisements,” read the company’s terms of use. “Political content is not allowed in any type of advertising.”

The ads were targeted at TikTok users in Portugal. Last year, 80,900 Brazilians were eligible to vote there in the 2022 Brazilian presidential election — there were 239,700 Brazilians officially living in that country.

According to the Elections Law, “the transmission of any type of paid electoral propaganda on the internet is prohibited, except for promoting content, provided that it is unequivocally identified as such and contracted exclusively by parties, coalitions and candidates and their representatives.”

For Fernando Neisser, president of the Electoral Law Commission of the São Paulo Lawyers Institute, the fact that the advertisement was broadcast in Portugal does not exempt the company from responsibility.

“It doesn’t matter where the contract is made or in which territorial area certain advertising was distributed – the obvious intention can only be to affect Brazilian voters residing in Portugal, who vote (in Brazilian elections) in Portugal; the advertisers and the target audience remain bound by Brazilian law”, he says.

According to him, to state that there is no jurisdiction of Brazilian Justice would be the same as saying: I can buy votes from Brazilian voters who live in Portugal or in the United States, I can coerce Brazilian voters who live in those countries at gunpoint, because Brazilian law does not applies.

“There is no tacit permission to authorize irregular advertising, paid for by third parties, made outside the channels provided for by law for the mere fact of being broadcast in another country.”

Another possible irregularity is that the ads constitute campaign expenses, made by third parties, and not declared to the Superior Electoral Court, as required by law.

Wanted, TikTok did not send a position until the report was closed.

According to Marie Santini, director of NetLab, it is very important that all platforms have so-called ad libraries, so that it can be verified that the electoral rules are being complied with. In Brazil, TikTok does not have it.

“Transparency in ads is essential, because that’s the only way we can monitor election campaigns; libraries show that many ads end up going through the platforms’ filters”, he says.