Meta Staff Acknowledged Restrictions on Lula's Accounts Before Brazil Runoff

Employees at Meta acknowledged in internal communications that the Instagram accounts of Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva were negatively affected by restrictions during the election campaign. The Brazilian daily Folha de S. Paulo reported the matter on Friday, citing messages it had reviewed.

According to the paper, the same exchanges acknowledged that the platform had recommended users the profile of Lula's challenger, Senator Flavio Bolsonaro, as well as his WhatsApp channel.

The company's response

Meta told Reuters that the technical issues referenced in the report were already public, and that the conversations concerned solely the severity of those issues, not any political interference. "Any suggestion that Meta favors one side is false," the company said in a statement.

The left-wing incumbent Lula will face right-wing challenger Bolsonaro in a runoff on October 25, after the senator performed stronger than expected in the first round earlier this month.

The court order

The report followed a Brazilian court ruling issued on Thursday that ordered Meta to immediately adopt measures ensuring equal treatment of both candidates before the runoff. It came after a complaint from Lula, who accused the owner of Instagram, Facebook and WhatsApp of using biased algorithms and AI-based restrictions to favour the opposition.

Justice Marco Aurelio Bellizze of Brazil's top electoral court ruled that the company may not reduce the distribution of political content, restrict searches or remove posts in ways that create an imbalance between the candidates. Its artificial intelligence tool must apply identical criteria to both campaigns. Failure to comply carries a fine of 500,000 reais (about $98,700) per day.

According to Lula's party, some of his posts appeared without a share button and with reduced reach, and lacked options for reactions, sharing, audio and accelerated playback.

Source: Hacker News