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Brazil's electoral court and the federal attorney general signed a 12-month technical cooperation accord whose main output is a non-binding AI good-practices guide for the 2026 elections
The headline is an accord about deepfakes in an election year. The operative fact is quieter: what gets produced is a guide, on a timetable that runs past the point where most campaign material is already made.
Bottom line: Not binding. This is a technical cooperation accord between two institutions, and the document it commissions is a guia de boas praticas, an orientation guide. It creates no new electoral offence and amends no TSE resolution.
Who this affects: Brazilian electoral lawyers advising campaigns, party compliance officers, in-house counsel at digital platforms operating in Brazil, and communications directors who sign off on campaign creative.
Issue date: Signed Monday 3 August 2026. The accord runs 12 months. Working group formalised within 30 days; technical review of the draft in 40 days; final guide published within 45 days after a public consultation.
What changed: Two institutions that had no standing joint workstream on synthetic media now have one, with named coordinators and a published sequence of deliverables.
Analysis: Read the governance clause, not the deepfake language. The accord expressly forbids any mention, image or symbol in the guide that could be read as personal promotion of officials or disguised electoral propaganda. That is a defensive provision drafted by people who expect the guide itself to be attacked as partisan.
Primary sources: TSE news release, 3 August 2026 · Cartilha de Boas Praticas Inteligencia Artificial
- Instrument (EN)
- Technical cooperation accord on artificial intelligence in the 2026 elections
- Authority
- Tribunal Superior Eleitoral (TSE) and Advocacia-Geral da Uniao (AGU)
- Jurisdiction
- Brazil, federal
- Status
- Signed and in effect for 12 months; the commissioned guide is not yet published
- Bindingness
- Non-binding as to third parties. It commits two institutions to each other, not campaigns to a standard.
- Issue date / next deadline
- Signed 3 August 2026. Working group formalised within 30 days of signature.
- Signatories
- Minister Kassio Nunes Marques (TSE president), Minister Jorge Messias (advogado-geral da Uniao), Ricardo Lewandowski (president of the AGU Observatorio da Democracia)
- Coordination
- Murilo Salmito Noleto (TSE) and Paulo Ronaldo Ceode Carvalho (AGU)
- Primary source
- https://www.tse.jus.br/comunicacao/noticias/2026/Agosto/tse-e-agu-firmam-acordo-de-boas-praticas-sobre-ia-nas-eleicoes-2026
What was actually signed
On 3 August 2026 the Tribunal Superior Eleitoral and the Advocacia-Geral da Uniao signed a technical cooperation accord covering the use of artificial intelligence in electoral campaigns. The TSE describes the purpose as preventing abuse, countering disinformation and preserving the integrity of the 2026 elections.
The instrument transfers no money. Each institution carries its own operating costs, and the accord runs for twelve months.
It is worth being precise about what an accord of this kind is. It is an agreement between two public bodies to work together. It is not a resolution of the electoral court. The TSE's own release does open by saying the accord was signed para regulamentar e fiscalizar o uso de inteligencia artificial nas campanhas eleitorais, to regulate and supervise the use of AI in electoral campaigns, which reads as more than cooperation. Nothing in the rest of the release supports that framing: the deliverable it describes is a guia de boas praticas, the accord transfers no money and binds no third party, and no new electoral offence or resolution is announced.
The deliverable and its clock
The principal output is a guide of good practices aimed at parties, candidates, digital platforms, public bodies and civil society. On the TSE's account it will collect guidance for reducing risks tied to synthetic disinformation, including deepfakes, unlawful automation and the microtargeting of manipulated content.
The schedule has three steps. The working group is to be formalised within 30 days. A draft prepared by the AGU's Observatorio da Democracia is then reviewed by technical teams over 40 days. After a public consultation period, the final version is to be published within 45 days.
Add those up against a campaign calendar and the guide lands late in the cycle. Anyone who plans to rely on it for creative approvals should assume it arrives after the first wave of material is already commissioned.
The neutrality clause is the interesting part
The accord sets governance rules intended to secure the independence of the material produced. Joint actions are to observe strict institutional neutrality and political non-alignment.
The guide is required to maintain technical rigour and plurality of viewpoints, and the TSE says any mention, image or symbol capable of being read as personal promotion of authorities or as disguised electoral propaganda is expressly prohibited.
That prohibition tells you what the drafters were worried about. A guide issued jointly by the electoral court and the government's own law office in an election year is exposed to exactly one line of attack, and the clause exists to blunt it.
Rights in the output
Intellectual rights in the guide and in the studies produced are shared between the TSE and the AGU. The material may be reproduced for educational and public-awareness purposes.
Commercial exploitation or political-party use requires prior authorisation from both institutions. If your firm wants to bundle the guide into a paid compliance product, that is a permission question, not a fair-dealing question.
Beyond the guide, the accord contemplates courses, workshops and seminars on information integrity, citizenship and countering political violence.
What a Brazilian campaign adviser should do now
Nothing in this accord changes an existing obligation. Campaign conduct is still governed by the electoral legislation and TSE resolutions already in force, and a guide arriving in late 2026 does not retroactively define what was permissible earlier.
The practical move is calendar management. Log the 30-day, 40-day and 45-day milestones, watch for the public consultation window, and file a submission if your client has a position on labelling or automation that is better argued before publication than after.
What we did not verify
We opened the TSE news release of 3 August 2026 in full and took every fact and quotation from it.
We did not open the signed text of the accord itself, which the release does not publish, and we did not read the Cartilha de Boas Praticas Inteligencia Artificial linked at the foot of the release. We therefore cannot say whether that existing cartilha is the same document as the guide the accord commissions, or a separate earlier publication.
We refuse to claim that this accord imposes any obligation on a candidate, party or platform. The release describes a cooperation agreement and a forthcoming guide, and we report it as that.
An inter-institutional accord is a commitment between agencies, not a rule for the people the agencies regulate. The transferable point is timing: the guide it commissions will not exist until well into the campaign, so advise clients against the law that is currently in force and treat the consultation window as your only chance to shape what comes later.
Source File
Open the TSE release of 3 August 2026 and confirm three things: the signature date and the twelve-month term, the 30 / 40 / 45 day sequence for the working group, technical review and final publication, and the express prohibition on any symbol readable as personal promotion of authorities.
E muito importante que nos oferecamos a sociedade a boa informacao, a informacao de qualidade para que o eleitor possa tomar a sua decisao de forma livre e desimpedida. ยท Minister Jorge Messias, advogado-geral da Uniao, 3 August 2026
FAQ
Does this accord ban AI-generated campaign material?
No. It commissions a guide of good practices. Restrictions on synthetic campaign content in Brazil come from the electoral legislation and TSE resolutions, not from this document.
When will the guide actually exist?
On the published schedule, after a 30-day working-group formalisation, a 40-day technical review and a public consultation, with final publication within a further 45 days.
Can I reuse the guide in client materials?
For educational and public-awareness purposes, yes on the TSE's account. Commercial exploitation or political-party use requires prior authorisation from both the TSE and the AGU.
Who is running the work?
Coordination sits with Murilo Salmito Noleto, secretary-general of the TSE presidency, and Paulo Ronaldo Ceode Carvalho, deputy advogado-geral da Uniao.
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