Facts
At the Liberal Party (PL) national convention on 25 July, which made Flávio Bolsonaro’s presidential candidacy official, the party showed a video that used AI to recreate the image and voice of former president Jair Bolsonaro declaring support for his son. The convention was also broadcast online. The Federação Brasil da Esperança, made up of the PT, PCdoB and PV, filed a representation alleging early electoral propaganda, an unlawful transfer of political capital and the use of a deepfake. It asked for the video to be taken down and for a fine on the candidate for breaching the electoral rules on AI.
Question
Article 9-C(1) of TSE Resolution No. 23.610/2019 bans the use of deepfakes in electoral propaganda to benefit or harm candidacies. The court had to define what counts as a deepfake for the purposes of that provision and decide whether the ban reaches content that is not electoral propaganda. It also had to determine whether broadcasting a closed party convention on the internet turns a message of support addressed to convention delegates into early electoral propaganda directed at voters.
Decision
On 1 September 2026 the plenary rejected the request by 4 votes to 3. The rapporteur, Justice Kassio Nunes Marques, stressed that the video was shown at a closed event for internal party deliberations, with no explicit request for votes. By 5 votes to 2 the court fixed a thesis: a deepfake presupposes synthetic content produced or manipulated by AI or equivalent technology, with a degree of realism or verisimilitude, intended to create, reproduce or alter the image, voice or statements of a living, deceased or fictional person, and the Article 9-C(1) ban applies only where the content qualifies as electoral propaganda. By 4–3, it added that broadcasting a convention online does not by itself make support addressed to delegates early propaganda.
Why it matters
The thesis is meant to guide electoral judges throughout the 2026 campaign. According to press coverage, its realism threshold leaves obviously artificial content such as memes, caricatures and animations outside the deepfake ban even when AI produced it, while other rules still apply, including the duty to label AI-generated electoral content. By tying the ban to electoral propaganda, the court narrowed its reach; two justices dissented on that point.
Related stages
On 8 October 2026, in a separate representation (Rp No. 0600955-65.2026.6.00.0000), the TSE unanimously ordered Flávio Bolsonaro to remove three posts on X about Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, one of which used AI without the label required by Article 9-B of Resolution 23.610/2019.