Brazil election: Meta given a day to demonstrate equal treatment
· BehindLines newsroom
On Monday, 19 October, Brazil's election judges set a 24-hour deadline for Meta to substantiate its equal treatment of the two presidential campaigns. The candidates are President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, seeking another term, and right-wing senator Flávio Bolsonaro. Their runoff is six days away. The dispute concerns Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp.
A larger daily penalty
On Thursday, a TSE judge had ordered the US company to apply the same rules to both candidates through the election, with a potential penalty of 500,000 reais a day for noncompliance. Monday's decision found that Meta had not demonstrated compliance and raised the daily amount to one million reais, approximately $200,000. Al Jazeera and France 24, citing a court document seen by AFP, report the increase. The court said the persistence of the problem so close to the vote showed the original penalty was insufficient.
Allegations from Lula's campaign
The president's team says his Instagram profile was not fully promoted, was difficult to find in searches, and that supporters' posts were removed more frequently. It also alleges inconsistent handling of election content by WhatsApp's artificial intelligence tool. Digital rights groups, including CTRL+Z, have supported complaints about unequal treatment.
Meta denies favouring either candidate. It has acknowledged that technical problems temporarily caused some advertisements from Lula's campaign to be taken offline by mistake. Those admissions do not amount to acceptance of all the allegations made by his campaign.
A close contest
Flávio Bolsonaro, the son of former president Jair Bolsonaro, who was convicted over an attempted coup, finished roughly two percentage points ahead in the first round on 4 October. Polling points to a closely contested runoff on 25 October.
DW reports that the candidates' first televised debate on Sunday descended into personal attacks. A second debate is scheduled for Friday. With Meta's platforms serving as a major news source for many Brazilians, their content rules have become a central issue in the final days of the campaign.