Meta Employees Claim Lula Accounts Restricted During Brazil Elections: Report | Social Media News

The messages, reported by a Brazilian daily, indicate that the platform recommended Bolsonaro’s profile and his WhatsApp channel.

Meta employees acknowledged in internal communications that Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva’s Instagram accounts were negatively affected by restrictions imposed during the country’s elections, according to media reports.

The messages, reported Friday by the Brazilian daily Folha de S Paulo, also recognize that the platform recommended the profile of Senator Flavio Bolsonaro, Lula’s challenger, as well as his WhatsApp channel. Folha, the Sao Paulo-based newspaper, cited messages it had reviewed.

Meta told the Reuters news agency that the technical problems cited in the report were already public and that the conversations he was referring to were only about the severity of the problems, not political interference.

“Any suggestion that Meta favors one side is false,” he added in a statement.

Lula, the left-wing incumbent, will face his right-wing challenger Bolsonaro in the presidential election runoff on Oct. 25, following a stronger-than-expected performance by the senator in the first round of voting earlier this month.

Friday’s report follows a Brazilian court ruling on Thursday that ordered Meta to immediately adopt measures to ensure equal treatment between the two candidates ahead of the runoff.

The ruling by a judge at Brazil’s top electoral court came shortly after Lula filed a lawsuit accusing the tech giant – owner of Instagram, Facebook and WhatsApp – of using biased algorithms and AI restrictions to favor opposition candidate Bolsonaro ahead of the election.

Judge Marco Aurelio Bellizze ruled that Meta could not reduce the distribution of political content, restrict searches or remove posts in a way that would create an imbalance between Lula and Bolsonaro. Its decision also orders the company to ensure that its artificial intelligence tool applies identical criteria to both applications.

Bellizze said in his ruling that Meta will have to pay a fine of 500,000 reais ($98,700) per day if it does not comply.

According to Lula’s party, some of his posts appeared without a share button and had reduced reach. Reactions, sharing, audio, or fast-paced options were also missing.