Brazilian Federal Court Orders Meta to Restore Four Blocked Student Accounts Within Two Days

A federal court in Porto Alegre ordered Meta to restore four student organization accounts on Instagram within two days, imposing a daily fine of R$10,000 for non-compliance. The 1ª Vara Federal de Porto Alegre issued the ruling on October 16, according to Folha. Meta declined to comment on the order.

The Court's Ruling on the Blocked Accounts

The accounts belong to student entities linked to the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul and the Federal University of Health Sciences of Porto Alegre. They are the Serviço de Assessoria Jurídica Universitária (@sajudaufrgs), the Centro Acadêmico André da Rocha (@caarufrgs), the Diretório Acadêmico de Economia, Contábeis e Atuariais (@ufrgsdaeca) and the Diretório Central dos Estudantes da UFCSPA (@dceufcspa). All four remained offline on the morning of October 17.

The entities, with the participation of the Federal Public Ministry, went to court after their Instagram accounts were blocked following posts related to the electoral scenario. They said the accounts were blocked simultaneously on October 6 without individualized justification, shortly after the publication of political and academic content related to the electoral scenario and the calling of a student assembly. The blocking communications, they said, consisted of standardized and generic messages, initially written in Spanish, attributing the measure to "unusual activity" without specifying the conduct or the terms-of-use rule allegedly violated.

Judge Graziela Cristine Bündchen wrote that there was a relevant indication of a lack of proper justification for the block, especially given the standardized notification sent by the platform, limited to invoking "unusual activity." "Nor is any of the exceptional situations that would authorize summary moderation of content by the platform verified, at first, such as the dissemination of child sexual exploitation material, apology for terrorism or incitement to violent crimes, and the platform has so far not pointed to any technical basis," she added. The measure also provides for abstention from blocking, suspending, restricting reach or removing content due to publications of a political or academic nature "exercised in the legitimate exercise of freedom of expression."

Meta's Scale and Recent Moves

Meta Platforms operates Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, Messenger and Threads, serving 3.56 billion daily active users and generating approximately 98% of revenue from advertising, according to akta.pro company records. The company reported $56.31 billion in Q1 2026 revenue, up 33% year over year. In July 2026, Meta invested approximately $890 million for a 20% stake in Indian fintech Cred and appointed Cred founder Kunal Shah as WhatsApp's new global CEO.

Earlier Events in Brazil

On October 15, 2026, a study by NetLab UFRJ found that Meta platforms hosted at least 1,613 irregular political advertisements paid for from outside Brazil between July and September 2026, Folha reported. On October 16, 2026, Folha published an opinion piece arguing Meta manipulated Facebook and Instagram algorithms to favor Flávio Bolsonaro's campaign. Also on October 16, 2026, the Yokohama District Court dismissed a damages lawsuit against Meta Platforms and its Japanese unit over fake ads using celebrities' names and images, EIN Presswire reported.

Next Steps for Meta Platforms

Meta has two days from the October 16 ruling to restore the four accounts. The order also bars the platform from blocking, suspending, restricting reach or removing content for political or academic publications.