Brazil’s top electoral court on Monday ordered US social media giant Meta to prove within 24 hours that it was treating President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and his right-wing opponent, Flavio Bolsonaro, equally.
The order followed allegations by Lula’s campaign that Meta, the parent company of Facebook, WhatsApp and Instagram, had been suppressing his online content to benefit Bolsonaro ahead of Sunday’s presidential runoff election, reports AFP.
Meta has denied taking any action to favour either candidate. However, it previously acknowledged that technical glitches, which were not limited to Brazil, had mistakenly deactivated some of Lula’s campaign advertisements.
Lula’s campaign also pointed to inconsistencies in WhatsApp’s artificial intelligence tool, claiming that election-related content about Lula was restricted while Bolsonaro’s material remained unaffected.
On Thursday, a judge at the Superior Electoral Court ordered Meta to apply identical rules to both candidates throughout the runoff election, warning of a daily fine of $100,000 for non-compliance.
However, a court document seen by news agency AFP showed that Monday’s ruling found Meta had failed to demonstrate compliance. The court doubled the daily penalty to $200,000, saying continued non-compliance just days before the election showed that the initial fine had been insufficient.
Following reports of fresh technical issues on Monday, Lula’s political party announced that it would file another complaint with the electoral tribunal. The party has already lodged formal complaints with the Organisation of American States (OAS) and the United Nations Special Rapporteur on freedom of expression.
Eden Valadares, the party’s communications secretary, told reporters that they hoped Meta would stop benefiting Flavio Bolsonaro’s campaign.
The controversy has also sparked public protests, with dozens of Lula supporters gathering outside Meta’s offices in Sao Paulo, holding placards and chanting slogans such as “Meta out of Brazil”.
Lilian Doring, a 47-year-old video animator who took part in the demonstration, told AFP that she hardly trusted anything she saw on Meta-managed platforms these days.
Meanwhile, the campaign of 45-year-old Senator Flavio Bolsonaro, the son of jailed former leader Jair Bolsonaro, accused Lula on Saturday of launching a “negative propaganda offensive” with Meta’s approval.
Flavio Bolsonaro topped the first round of voting earlier this month. However, opinion polls indicate a technical tie between the senator and the incumbent president, who is approaching his 81st birthday, ahead of Sunday’s runoff.
