Brazilian court orders Meta to treat candidates equally — Al Jazeera

Brazil’s Superior Electoral Court has ordered Meta to immediately take measures to ensure equal treatment of presidential candidates Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and Senator Flávio Bolsonaro ahead of the second round of elections. Judge Marco Aurélio Bellizze ruled that the company may not reduce the distribution of political content, restrict searches, or remove posts in a way that creates an imbalance between the candidates.

Court requirements for Meta

As Al Jazeera reports, the decision also requires Meta to apply the same criteria to both election campaigns in the operation of its artificial intelligence tool. If it fails to comply with the ruling, the company faces a fine of 500,000 reals, or about $98,700, for each day.

The decision was made after a complaint by Lula, who accused the technology company that owns Instagram, Facebook and WhatsApp of using biased algorithms and artificial intelligence-related restrictions in Bolsonaro’s favor. According to Lula’s party, some of his posts did not have a share button, and the reach of the publications decreased. Options for reactions, sharing, audio and accelerated playback were also unavailable.

More current news is available on the UA.News Telegram channel Telegram.

Internal messages

Brazilian newspaper Folha de São Paulo, which reviewed Meta’s internal messages, reported that company employees acknowledged the negative impact of the restrictions on Lula’s Instagram accounts. The messages also mentioned the platform’s recommendations regarding Bolsonaro’s profile and his WhatsApp channel.

Meta told Reuters that the technical issues mentioned had already been public, and that the internal discussions concerned only their severity, not political interference. The company rejected suggestions that it supported either side. The second round of Brazil’s presidential election is scheduled for October 25.