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

The messages, reported by a Brazilian daily, say the platform recommended Bolsonaro’s profile and his WhatsApp channel.

Brazil's President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva will face challenger Senator Flavio Bolsonaro in a presidential election runoff on October 25 [File: Evaristo Sa/AFP]

Employees at Meta have acknowledged in internal communications that the Instagram accounts of Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva were negatively affected by restrictions during the country’s election, media reports say.

The messages, reported on Friday by Brazilian daily Folha de S Paulo, also acknowledged the platform recommended the profile of Lula challenger Senator Flavio Bolsonaro, as well as his WhatsApp channel. Folha, the Sao Paulo-based paper, cited messages it had reviewed.

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Meta told the Reuters news agency that the technical issues cited in the report were already public and the conversations it referenced related solely to the severity of the issues, not political interference.

“Any suggestion that Meta favors one side is false,” it added in a statement.

Lula, the left-wing incumbent, will face right-wing challenger Bolsonaro in a presidential runoff on October 25, following a stronger-than-expected performance by the senator in the first-round vote earlier this month.

Friday’s report came on the heels of a Brazilian court ruling on Thursday that ordered Meta to immediately adopt measures to provide equal treatment of the two candidates ahead of the runoff.

The ruling by a judge in Brazil’s top electoral court was made shortly after Lula filed a complaint that accused the tech giant – which owns Instagram, Facebook and WhatsApp – of using biased algorithms and AI restrictions to favour opposition candidate Bolsonaro ahead of the election.

Justice Marco Aurelio 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. His ruling also orders the company to ensure its artificial intelligence tool applies identical criteria to both candidacies.

Bellizze said in his ruling that Meta must pay a fine of 500,000 reais ($98,700) per day if it fails to comply.

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.

据巴西一家日报报道，这些信息显示，该平台推荐了博索纳罗的个人资料和他的 WhatsApp 频道。

巴西总统路易斯·伊纳西奥·卢拉·达席尔瓦将在 10 月 25 日的总统选举决选中面对挑战者参议员弗拉维奥·博尔索纳罗 [文件：Evaristo Sa/法新社]

据媒体报道，Meta 的员工在内部沟通中承认，巴西总统路易斯·伊纳西奥·卢拉·达席尔瓦的 Instagram 账户在该国选举期间受到限制，受到了负面影响。

据巴西《圣保罗页报》周五报道，这些信息还证实，该平台推荐了卢拉的挑战者、参议员弗拉维奥·博尔索纳罗的个人资料及其WhatsApp频道。《圣保罗页报》是一份总部位于圣保罗的报纸，该报援引了其审阅的信息。

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Meta 告诉路透社，报告中提到的技术问题早已公开，报告中引用的对话仅与问题的严重性有关，与政治干预无关。

“任何认为 Meta 偏袒任何一方的说法都是错误的，”该公司在一份声明中补充道。

左翼现任总统卢拉将在10月25日与右翼挑战者博尔索纳罗进行总统决选。此前，卢拉在本月初的第一轮投票中表现超出预期。

周五的报道紧随巴西法院周四的一项裁决之后发布，该裁决命令梅塔立即采取措施，确保两名候选人在决选前获得平等对待。

巴西最高选举法院的一名法官做出裁决，此前不久，卢拉提起诉讼，指控这家拥有 Instagram、Facebook 和 WhatsApp 的科技巨头使用有偏见的算法和人工智能限制，在选举前偏袒反对派候选人博索纳罗。

马尔科·奥雷利奥·贝利泽法官裁定，Meta不得以任何方式减少政治内容的传播、限制搜索或删除帖子，从而造成卢拉和博尔索纳罗之间的不平衡。他的裁决还责令该公司确保其人工智能工具对两位候选人采用相同的标准。

贝利泽在判决中表示，如果 Meta 不遵守规定，则必须每天支付 500,000 雷亚尔（98,700 美元）的罚款。

据卢拉的政党称，他的一些帖子没有分享按钮，而且传播范围也受到限制。此外，点赞、分享、音频或加速播放等选项也缺失。