Meta has denied favouring Brazilian presidential candidate Flavio Bolsonaro after a court ordered the company to treat him and incumbent Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva equally ahead of their October 25 runoff.
The company said on Friday that problems affecting Lula’s accounts stemmed from global technical glitches, anti-fraud measures and regulatory compliance, rather than political interference.
“Any suggestion that Meta favors one side is false,” it said.
Brazilian newspaper Folha de S.Paulo reported, citing internal messages it reviewed, that Meta employees acknowledged restrictions had hindered Lula’s Instagram accounts while the platform recommended Bolsonaro’s profile and WhatsApp channel.
Lula’s campaign alleged that some of his posts lacked sharing options, had reduced reach and suffered technical problems affecting audio and user interactions.
The campaign also said it would file a complaint with the Organization of American States, accusing Meta of manipulating social media during the election.
Meta said the technical issues were already public and that the internal discussions concerned their severity, not political interference.
The company cited two global disruptions earlier in October: one froze Instagram Reels view counts across more than 100 countries without affecting content distribution, while another temporarily prevented users from creating advertisements from existing Instagram posts through one of its tools.
Its response did not address why Bolsonaro’s Instagram profile and WhatsApp channel had received algorithmic recommendations.
Court orders equal treatment
On Thursday, a justice at Brazil’s top electoral court ordered Meta not to unjustifiably restrict the reach of political content related to either candidate during the runoff campaign.
The ruling also required the company’s chatbot, Meta AI, to avoid favouring either candidate in election-related content.
Meta said it would continue to defend itself in the case.
The dispute follows Bolsonaro’s stronger-than-expected first-round performance, which secured him a place in the runoff against Lula.
Lula’s administration has pursued tighter regulation of technology platforms, including measures targeting illegal content and misinformation.
Irregular political ads
Separately, a study by researchers at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro found Meta allowed at least 1,613 irregular political advertisements between July and September.
The ads, funded primarily from the United States, generated 171 million views and approximately two million reais ($400,000) in revenue, AFP reported, citing the study.
Marie Santini, a communication professor involved in the study, said only political parties, candidates and coalitions were permitted to purchase electoral advertisements in Brazil.
“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,” she said.
