Meta employees acknowledged in internal messages that restrictions on Instagram negatively affected the accounts of Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva during the country’s election, according to reports.
The messages also indicated that Instagram recommended the profile of Lula’s rival, Senator Flavio Bolsonaro, along with his WhatsApp channel. The claims were reported by the Brazilian daily Folha de S Paulo, which said it had reviewed the communications.
Meta said the technical problems mentioned in the messages were already public and that the discussions concerned only the seriousness of the issues, rather than political interference.
“Any suggestion that Meta favors one side is false,” the company said in a statement.
Lula, the left-wing incumbent, is due to face the right-wing Bolsonaro in a presidential runoff on October 25. Bolsonaro performed more strongly than expected in the first round earlier this month.
Brazil court orders equal treatment
The report followed a ruling by a judge at Brazil’s top electoral court ordering Meta to take immediate steps to ensure equal treatment of the two candidates before the runoff.
The order came after Lula filed a complaint accusing Meta, which owns Instagram, Facebook and WhatsApp, of using biased algorithms and artificial intelligence restrictions to favour Bolsonaro.
Justice Marco Aurelio Bellizze ruled that Meta must not reduce the distribution of political content, restrict searches or remove posts in a way that creates an imbalance between the candidates. He also ordered the company to ensure its artificial intelligence tool applied identical criteria to both campaigns.
Meta faces a fine of 500,000 reais, or about 98,700 US dollars, for each day it fails to comply with the ruling.
Lula’s party said some of his posts appeared without a share button and had reduced reach. It also said options for reactions, sharing, audio and accelerated playback were missing.
