Meta employees acknowledged in internal communications that the Instagram accounts of Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva were negatively affected by restrictions during the country's election, according to messages reported by Brazilian daily Folha de Sao Paulo. The messages also admitted the platform recommended the profile of Lula's challenger, Senator Flavio Bolsonaro, as well as his WhatsApp channel.
Meta told Reuters that the technical issues cited were already public and the conversations referenced related solely to the severity of the issues, not political interference. "Any suggestion that Meta favors one side is false," the company stated.
The report followed a Brazilian court ruling ordering Meta to immediately adopt measures ensuring equal treatment of both candidates ahead of the October 25 runoff. Justice Marco Aurelio Bellizze ruled that Meta cannot reduce distribution of political content, restrict searches, or remove posts in a way that creates imbalance between Lula and Bolsonaro. The ruling also orders identical AI criteria for both candidacies, with a daily fine of 500,000 reais ($98,700) for non-compliance.
Lula's party reported some posts appeared without share buttons and had reduced reach, with missing reactions, sharing options, audio, and accelerated speed features.
Source: Hacker News · Summarized by HeadlinesBriefing