Meta employees said Lula’s accounts were hindered during Brazil election – report

Employees at Meta 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, newspaper Folha de S.Paulo reported on Friday, citing messages it reviewed.

The messages ⁠also acknowledged the platform recommended the profile of challenger Senator Flavio Bolsonaro, as well as his WhatsApp channel, according to the report.

* Meta did not immediately respond to a request for comment

* Lula will face Bolsonaro in a runoff on October 25, following a stronger-than-expected performance by the ⁠senator ⁠in the first-round vote earlier this month

* Lula’s camp said earlier this week it would file a complaint before the Organization of American States alleging that Meta, which owns Instagram, WhatsApp and Facebook, manipulated social media during Brazil’s election

* According to Lula’s ⁠party, some of his posts appeared without a share button, suffered reduced reach, and had stories that prevented reactions and sharing, in addition to appearing without audio or playing at accelerated speed

* A justice at Brazil’s top ⁠electoral ‌court on ‌Thursday ordered the company not to ⁠unjustifiably limit the ‌reach of political content related to both candidates through the end of the ⁠runoff campaign

* The ruling also ⁠stipulated that Meta AI, the company’s artificial intelligence ⁠chatbot, must not favor either candidate when generating election-related content