Meta denies accusation of anti-Lula political bias in Brazil after electoral court ruling

SAO PAULO (AP) — Tech giant Meta denied accusations Friday that it acted with political bias during Brazil’s presidential campaign, less than a day after the country’s electoral court ruled the platform must give equal treatment to incumbent Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and opposition candidate Flávio Bolsonaro ahead of their Oct. 25 runoff.

The lawsuit was triggered by Lula’s campaign, which claimed that the company owning Instagram, Facebook , and WhatsApp was using biased algorithms and AI restrictions to favor Bolsonaro. The suit in Brazil echoes related European cases in Romania and Germany, where courts previously intervened to correct platform imbalances.

Meta said in response that a series of recent platform issues stemmed from unrelated global technical glitches, strict anti-fraud measures, and regulatory compliance rather than targeted suppression. It insisted its systems do not distribute content based on political ideology and emphasized that rules are applied equally.

The company said it had two global technical disruptions earlier in October: one froze view counts on Instagram Reels across more than 100 countries while content distribution remained normal, and another briefly disrupted ad creation from existing Instagram posts in one of its tools for one day.

Addressing the Lula campaign’s concerns regarding Meta AI, the company explained that a loophole involving generic first names combined with electoral numbers briefly prevented some users from generating images of the president, while still allowing them to do so for Flávio Bolsonaro for another day.

Meta did not, however, address why Bolsonaro’s Instagram and WhatsApp channels received algorithmic recommendations, a practice ruled illegal by Brazil’s electoral court.

“Brazilian voters deserve facts, not a political narrative constructed by combining unrelated technical issues. Meta will continue to enforce its rules, comply with Brazilian electoral legislation, correct errors when they occur, and ensure a level playing field for everyone who uses our services,” Meta said.

"Meta applies the same rules to all candidates, parties, and political viewpoints in Brazil, just as it does for elections worldwide. We do not suppress content to disadvantage any side, nor do we grant preferential treatment to any side. Each of the incidents cited by the Lula campaign has a direct and documented explanation, as described above. None of them reflect political bias,” it added.

Earlier on Friday, the daily Folha de S. Paulo reported, citing leaked internal communications, that Meta employees acknowledged the incumbent campaign’s accounts were indeed restricted from boosting certain posts due to technical glitches and algorithmic limitations, though company engineers insisted the issues came from system failures and automated errors.

Since taking office in 2023, Lula has enacted online protections for women and minors, issued decrees on platform accountability, and partnered with the Supreme Court to hold companies liable for illegal content and misinformation. Platforms like Google, Meta and TikTok since last year have to monitor and remove hate speech, racism and incitement to violence in Brazil.

That stance has unsettled relations with the Trump administration and drawn criticism from those concerned it could threaten free speech. Meta said in the statement it will continue to defend itself against the lawsuit.

The allegations in Brazil align with international precedents regarding tech platforms and elections. In 2019, ahead of European Parliament elections, Germany ’s Constitutional Court issued a landmark decision against platform censorship by forcing Facebook to restore the blocked page of a political party, establishing that tech giants must abide by constitutional principles of political equality.

Five years later, Romania faced covert algorithmic manipulation during its 2024 presidential election, which was annulled due to hidden TikTok amplification and bot networks favoring pro-Russia candidate Călin Georgescu; Romania subsequently enacted emergency legislation requiring mandatory tracking codes on all political social media messaging, shifting the paradigm toward structural transparency.

Adding to Meta’s challenges in Brazil, a study released this week by a research group at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro revealed that the platform allowed at least 1,613 irregular political ads — totaling 171 million views and generating roughly 2 million reais ($400,000) in revenue between July and September — funded primarily from the United States.

“In Brazil, it is prohibited for any entity other than a political party, a candidate, or a coalition to purchase electoral advertisements. No company should be able to buy ads on Meta, whether from within Brazil or abroad, to promote an electoral campaign," said communication professor Marie Santini, who was involved in the study. “It is not the first time that Meta is negligent with the electoral law, not the first country. It is a systematic behavior of the company.”

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