The Republicans, the party of the governor of São Paulo, Tarcísio de Freitas, has launched a judicial offensive to combat posts critical of the politician on social media. In two months, the party filed eight lawsuits with the state Electoral Court (TRE-SP) to have publications of this type taken down.
Four of them are linked to state deputy Antonio Donato (PT), who has used the networks to criticize the governor and promote former minister Fernando Haddad (PT), pre-candidate for state government. In three other cases, the Republicans requested that publications from the Contra a Maré profile, with just 27 followers on Facebook, be extinguished. In these, the party claims that there was illegal promotion of publications. The last person represented was councilor Chico Nogueira (PT), from Santos (SP), who is a pre-candidate for state deputy.
According to the Electoral Law, promoting negative content against a candidate is prohibited. Boosting is only permitted to promote or benefit candidates and their parties. Promotions must be paid for by the federation, party or candidates and must clearly identify whether it is a promoted publication. Those responsible for the content must also maintain public data on the promotion, determines the Superior Electoral Court (TSE). Furthermore, an explicit request for a vote is vetoed.
None of the actions have yet been judged by TRE-SP, there were only preliminary decisions. See below for more details on each case:
Free Flow and “Mister M” tolls
The first of four recent Republican actions against state deputy Antonio Donato (PT) was filed on April 16. Ten days earlier, the parliamentarian started promoting a post in which he “bolds off” Tarcísio for the free flow tolls, which are being installed in the state.
“And the big deal today is Governor Tarcísio’s free flow tolls, which are very poorly evaluated by the population. A survey by the Getúlio Vargas Foundation shows that Tarcísio de Freitas is identified as the main person responsible for this harmful policy that increases the cost of living for São Paulo residents, harms our economy and every citizen who uses our roads. Yes, Tarcísio, your potatoes are roasting”, says Donato, then praises Haddad.
“And the big thing this week is the recent electoral survey for the state government. They said that Governor Tarcísio didn’t even need to contest the election, which he had already won. But, the recent Atlas survey came out, and Haddad is hot on Tarcísio’s heels, without starting the campaign! Imagine when discussing the privatization of Sabesp, discussing Free flow, the feeling of insecurity, bad health, terrible education”, said Donato, in a video lasting one minute and 38 seconds. The material was removed from the air by preliminary decision, but there was no judgment on the merits.
For the Republicans, the deputy committed two electoral crimes: early electoral propaganda in favor of Haddad and negative electoral propaganda about Tarcísio “illegally promoted, which violates article 57-C of the Elections Law”, says the caption.
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Two other processes also deal with tolls, an issue that has been widely used by the opposition against the government. In April, Tarcísio postponed for the third time the start of electronic toll collection, known as “free flow” or “without gate”, on the highways in the Rota Sorocabana lot (Raposo Tavares and Castellinho). The charge, which had previously been postponed, was rescheduled for January 1, 2027. After the announcement, Donato went online again.
“Just look at the latest from Tarcísio on the free flow toll. He is postponing the toll collection at 23 toll gates on the Sorocabana route (…) He is throwing the collection away, instead of being carried out now in April, as the contract says, until January 1, 2027. He wants to deceive you. But in reality this is the fear of negative electoral impact. Now he is scared by the polls with the chance of Haddad winning his election and start carrying out early electoral fraud”, he stated.
In a fourth process, Donato called the governor “Mister M”, a magician who was successful on TV in the 90s and 2000s.
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“Would Tarcísio de Freitas be the new Mister M? Just look at this headline. The Sports Department doesn’t know where R$23 million reais worth of materials ended up. They disappeared. Was it magic? And this disappearance was discovered because the State Audit Court requested an audit and then R$23 million reais worth of materials disappeared without any record. This is scandalous, Tarcísio de Freitas. This is not magic. You know what it is. This is embezzlement of public money. This is robbery! In fact, it is becoming increasingly common in your Government”, stated the parliamentarian, in a post later deleted.
Donato referred to the fact that the Sports Secretariat did not know where R$23 million in materials acquired by the department ended up. The problem was identified after carrying out an inventory of the warehouse, required by the State Audit Court (TCE).
For the Republicans, in addition to offending the governor’s image, the PT deputy promoted negative electoral propaganda against the pre-candidate for re-election. In both cases, the party requested the convict of the deputy and the payment of a fine, to be stipulated by the Court, in case of conviction.
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When contacted, the state deputy sent the following note: “Tarcísio is trying to silence me because I am exposing the lies of his government, which has no deliveries and keeps publishing videos of virtual works. What this administration does most is use artificial intelligence to deceive the people. Tarcísio and the extreme right keep talking about freedom of expression, but they cannot stand to face the truth and that is why they call for censorship. I am not afraid of the governor and his gang. I will continue to follow Tarcísio, monitoring and reporting the problems of its administration.”
In the processes, Donato was based on principles such as “freedom of expression and political criticism as non-negotiable constitutional guarantees”. He also states that he has parliamentary immunity and that there were no requests for votes. For him, terms like “we are going to win this election” are political rhetoric. Furthermore, the deputy states that there was no irregular promotion of the posts.
In a note, the state president of the Republicans, Roberto Carneiro, who is the state secretary of Government and Institutional Relations, stated that there is a difference between legitimate criticism and deliberate disinformation. See the note below.
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“Republicans São Paulo expresses concern about the dissemination of false and distorted content aimed at attacking the image of governor Tarcísio de Freitas and disqualifying the results of his administration in São Paulo. Political debate is healthy and necessary in a democracy. But there is a difference between legitimate criticism and deliberate disinformation — and it is within this limit that some recent publications fall, extrapolating criticism to mislead the population. Therefore, the party adopted the appropriate legal measures, already obtaining decisions injunctions that determined the suspension of untrue content. This action follows the consolidated understanding of the Electoral Court: freedom of expression does not protect the conscious dissemination of false facts,” said the secretary and state president of the party, in a statement.
Profile with 28 followers
Another recent target of the Republicans in the São Paulo Electoral Court is the Facebook page “Contra a Maré”, which has only 27 followers, but has been making dozens of publications against Tarcísio de Freitas and senator Flávio Bolsonaro (PL-RJ). This Tuesday (16), at 2:30 pm, the page had more than 80 active boosted publications. Each post reaches around 30 thousand people and costs between R$200 and R$700.
The previous day, the Republicans filed three lawsuits against the page’s posts about Tarcísio. In one of them, the profile made a montage with the governor greeting former banker Daniel Vorcaro and linking him to the privatization of Sabesp. Together, the three materials reached 100,000 network users.
The publication is not available directly on the page’s profile and only appears in the platform’s ad library, which makes it difficult to find via a specific link that could be challenged in court.
For the Republicans, the illegality in this case is twofold. “Before even considering the negative content, the push opposed here stumbles upon the subjective requirement of the device: hiring is only permitted when carried out by parties, coalitions, candidates and their representatives. The person represented is not any of them. It is an anonymous page, maintained under the pseudonym “Contra a Maré”, with an identity disguised behind an electronic address linked to a disposable messaging service and a vaguely declared location. The only hiring of the ad, by those who do not have the legitimacy to do so, already consummate the infraction”, says the caption.
When contacted on their page to talk about these and other promoted ads, those responsible did not respond.
In the coming days, the Republicans will take new actions against the page. Another member of the party is the councilor of Santos (SP) Francisco José Nogueira da Silva (PT), Chico Nogueira, who called Tarcísio de Freitas “incompetent”.
On April 6, the parliamentarian made the following post on Facebook:
“The current governor only knows how to privatize and make public services worse. Tarcísio is an incompetent manager. He privatized Sabesp, the bill increased and the service got worse. He installs tolls on the roads and makes life more expensive for the people. He boycotts teachers and police officers. It makes education and security in our state worse.” Below the phrases, the councilor, who is a pre-candidate for state deputy. inserted photos of you with Haddad.
For the Republicans, there was irregular pro-Haddad and negative propaganda against Tarcísio. “The post contains elements that leave no doubt regarding the electoral propaganda nature of the message”, says the Republicans, in the process.
On June 1, Chico Nogueira sent his objection to the Court, denying that he had asked for votes and that his criticism of the governor was legal.
While he is a promoter of actions against Tarcísio’s enemies, the Republicans are also the target of representation against the governor. On May 4, state deputy Teonilio Barba (PT) filed a complaint against the governor for going to Agrishow, in Ribeirão Preto (SP), at the end of April, together with senator Flávio Bolsonaro (PL-RJ), pre-candidate for president.
In the action, Barba claims that there was abuse of political power and conduct prohibited to public agents according to the Electoral Law. Therefore, he calls for a series of measures, such as a fine, recognition of illegalities and declaration of the governor’s ineligibility. When contacted, Tarcísio did not comment on this action.
