Meta accuses Brazilian protest groups of privacy violations

Meta gave three Brazilian civil society organizations 24 hours to remove the name and professional contacts of its Brazil general director, Conrado Leister, from a campaign against the company. The groups — CTRL+Z, Código Não Binário and ARTIGO 19 — complied, but they call the move an attempt at intimidation and a violation of freedom of expression and assembly.

Meta sent the extrajudicial notification on Thursday, June 12. The timing matters: the same week, the Superior Electoral Court (TSE) fined Meta R$ 7.5 million, and the Chamber of Deputies is debating the Digital Markets Bill, which targets the market concentration of large technology firms.

In a public statement released on Friday, June 13, the organizations said Meta's action represents "a tentativa de intimidação das organizadoras do protesto contra a Meta, e de silenciamento de manifestações legítimas de brasileiros que se sentiram prejudicados pela empresa" — an attempt to intimidate the organizers of the protest and to silence legitimate expression by Brazilians who felt harmed by the company.

What sparked the dispute?

The conflict began with the "Meta não se meta" protest outside the company's headquarters on Avenida Faria Lima in São Paulo. The organizations say the demonstration gathered more than 2,000 people and aimed to deliver an extrajudicial notification to the company's country director, demanding compliance with commitments the platform made to the TSE during the electoral period.

Meta refused to receive the document. According to the groups, Daniela da Silva and Veronyka Gimenes, directors of CTRL+Z and Código Não Binário, were directed to look for an outsourced employee in the building's garage.

In response, the organizations published the notification online through a tool that let users send messages to the company. The site also listed Leister's professional email and public LinkedIn profile, plus Mark Zuckerberg's Instagram profile.

What does Meta's legal argument rest on?

Meta argues that publishing its executive's data violates Brazil's General Data Protection Law (LGPD) and the rights to privacy and intimacy. The company demanded immediate removal of the information and gave the groups 24 hours to confirm compliance.

The organizations contest the claim. They say the data is public, relates to the executives' professional activity, and serves the legitimate interest of the protest. "A Meta não tem (ou não divulga) os canais adequados para reclamações legítimas. E, quando organizações indicam os diretores da empresa que podem responder, a big tech responde com uma tentativa de silenciamento," the statement reads.

The groups also describe the notification as "comportamento clássico de assédio judicial" — classic litigation harassment — because it forces them to mobilize resources to answer one of the world's largest technology companies.

Compliance, but not surrender

Despite the criticism, CTRL+Z, Código Não Binário and ARTIGO 19 removed the executives' data from their sites. They now inform users that the information was suppressed at Meta's request.

"Mais uma vez a empresa afronta a liberdade de expressão e a liberdade de manifestação da sociedade brasileira," the organizations said, pledging to keep up the mobilization. Their statement also cites the "Dobrar a Meta" campaign, which demands transparency measures and user guarantees from the Lula government, and announces a new protest outside Meta's headquarters in the coming week.

For brand and public affairs teams, the episode shows how quickly a data-protection claim can escalate into a freedom-of-expression controversy when it lands days before a regulatory vote and a court fine.