AI-generated images used in gender-based political attacks during Brazilian Senate campaign
Gleisi Hoffmann, a Brazilian Senate candidate, filed a complaint alleging that political opponents used AI-generated images and sexualized references in coordinated gender-based attacks during the 2026 campaign. She requested investigation by the Electoral Public Ministry and Federal Police.
What happened
Gleisi Hoffmann, a candidate for Senate in Paraná, filed a complaint with the Electoral Public Ministry on 17 September 2026 against Deltan Dallagnol, Filipe Barros and Jeffrey Chiquini, alleging gender-based political violence.
The complaint cited four incidents between March and September 2026 that included sexualized references, attacks on her appearance, and images produced by artificial intelligence. On 23 March, Filipe Barros responded to Gleisi's mention of him in a Chamber of Deputies speech about January 8 events with a TikTok video telling her to 'wash her mouth' and using nicknames allegedly from Odebrecht records. On 22 April, Deltan Dallagnol published an Instagram video associating a supposed codename attributed to Gleisi from an Odebrecht spreadsheet with a Marília Mendonça song.
Reported impact
Gleisi Hoffmann stated that the attacks aimed to constrain her based on her condition as a woman and requested that the Federal Police investigate the candidates.
Classification
Sources and evidence
This record was researched and written by the Index, based on the following original reporting.