Meta employees say Lula’s accounts restricted in Brazil election: Report

Key points

• Meta employees acknowledged internally that Lula's Instagram accounts were negatively affected during Brazil's election.
• A Brazilian court ordered Meta to treat Lula and Bolsonaro equally before the October 25 runoff.
• Meta denied political interference, saying the issues were technical and already public.

Employees at Meta have acknowledged in internal communications that Instagram accounts belonging to Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva were negatively affected by restrictions during the country's election, according to media reports. The messages, reported Friday by Brazilian daily Folha de S Paulo, also acknowledged that the platform recommended the profile of Lula's challenger, Senator Flavio Bolsonaro, as well as his WhatsApp channel. Folha cited messages it had reviewed.

Meta told Reuters that the technical issues cited in the report were already public and that the conversations related solely to the severity of the issues, not political interference. "Any suggestion that Meta favors one side is false," the company added in a statement.

Court order and runoff

The report followed a Brazilian court ruling on Thursday ordering Meta to immediately adopt measures to provide equal treatment of the two candidates ahead of the runoff. Lula, the left-wing incumbent, will face right-wing challenger Bolsonaro in a presidential runoff on October 25, after the senator's stronger-than-expected first-round performance earlier this month.

The ruling by Justice Marco Aurelio Bellizze of Brazil's top electoral court came shortly after Lula filed a complaint accusing the tech giant, which owns Instagram, Facebook and WhatsApp, of using biased algorithms and AI restrictions to favour Bolsonaro. Bellizze ruled that Meta cannot reduce the distribution of political content, restrict searches or remove posts in a way that creates an imbalance between Lula and Bolsonaro. He also ordered the company to ensure its artificial intelligence tool applies identical criteria to both candidacies, and said Meta must pay a fine of 500,000 reais ($98,700) per day if it fails to comply.

Any suggestion that Meta favors one side is false

— Meta

Impact on Lula's posts

According to Lula's party, some of his posts appeared without a share button and had reduced reach. Options for reactions, sharing, audio or accelerated speed were also missing.