Meta knew about restrictions on Lula’s Instagram accounts — The Rio Times
In Brazil, internal Meta messages indicate that the company’s employees knew about restrictions that could have harmed the Instagram accounts of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. The Rio Times reported this, citing an article by Folha de S.Paulo.
According to the publication, Lula’s team was unable to promote already published Instagram posts for nearly 24 hours starting on October 9. The president’s campaign said that, as a result, approximately 1.3 million people did not see the advertisements.
Meta’s internal messages
As Folha de S.Paulo writes, Meta employees noted that Lula’s account appeared to be restricted compared with the account of his rival Flávio Bolsonaro, a senator from Rio de Janeiro. According to ND Mais, employees also noticed unwanted recommendations on Instagram and WhatsApp of profiles linked to Bolsonaro.
Lula’s profile, according to the same messages, had difficulties appearing in search results. Brazil’s Superior Electoral Court prohibits automatic recommendations of candidates’ profiles.
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Meta’s position and the court ruling
Meta rejected accusations of election interference, calling them unsupported by facts. The company explained the problems as technical failures which, it said, affected both campaigns.
In a submission to the electoral court dated October 14, Meta acknowledged that on September 23 it mistakenly suspended Lula’s advertising account because of an error in an automated fraud-detection system. According to The Rio Times, access was restored in about an hour.
This week, a representative of the Superior Electoral Court, Marco Aurélio Bellizze, ordered Meta to ensure equal treatment of both participants in the second round — Lula and Flávio Bolsonaro. The company faces a fine of 500,000 reais per day for failing to comply with the ruling. The court has not yet determined that Meta intentionally manipulated the candidates’ reach.
