TSE fines Google for failing to comply with decision on Lula and Bolsonaro campaign links

traffic ticket

Google fulfilled only part of the decision that requested data on presidential campaigns

Minister Benedito Gonçalves, General Inspector of the Superior Electoral Court (TSE), ordered Google to pay a fine of BRL 60,000 for non-compliance with the decision that requested information on the use of sponsored links in the campaigns of Jair Bolsonaro (PL) and Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT) to the Presidency last year. The decision was handed down this Tuesday (18), in an Electoral Judicial Investigation Action (Aije) filed by the former president’s campaign against the PT in the 2022 elections.

The current president is accused of practicing abuse of economic power and misuse of the media for allegedly carrying out illicit promotion of electoral propaganda on the Google ad platform.

According to the inspector, Google fulfilled only part of the decision that requested data on presidential campaigns. The company filed an appeal against the minister’s order, claiming that there was an increase in demand and that the inspector was investigating, ex officio, the conduct of the plaintiff (in this case, Bolsonaro).

“The questioning is incompatible with the position of recipient of a judicial request. Undoubtedly, it is up to the third party, disinterested in the process, to respond to judicial determinations objectively, not giving it space to make considerations about petitions and requirements presented by the litigants”

said the minister in response.

Minister’s justification

Gonçalves justified the determination by pointing out that Bolsonaro’s campaign presented only one ad as illicit and that the analysis of abuse of power must be contextualized.

“Since this was the only support for the breadth of the aforementioned evidence, it was agreed that the parameter could only be drawn taking into account the panorama of advertisement boosts by both presidential campaigns that confronted each other until the second round of the elections”

explained the minister.

*With information from IstoÉ

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