SÃO PAULO — A judge of Brazil’s top electoral court ruled Thursday that Meta must adopt measures to immediately secure equal treatment of the two presidential candidates ahead of an Oct. 25 runoff.

The ruling comes shortly after President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, who is running against Flávio Bolsonaro, filed a complaint that accused the tech company that owns Instagram, Facebook and WhatsApp of using biased algorithms and AI restrictions to favor opposition candidate Bolsonaro ahead of the election.

Lula’s campaign argues that accounts and advertisements associated with Flávio Bolsonaro have reportedly received artificially inflated visibility, with engagement metrics rivaling those of global celebrities. The two are in a close race for the presidency, after the son of former President Jair Bolsonaro garnered 47% of the vote against 45% for the incumbent in the first round on Oct. 4.

    • ☂️-@lemmy.ml
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      16
      ·
      edit-2
      11 hours ago

      brazil tried regulating it relatively recently. google featured ads against it in their literal brazilian front search page calling it censorship, us backed congress people made a ruckus because that’d mean a lot of fascists would be exposed.

      you can imagine how the rest of it went. “freedom of speech” won.

  • wirebeads@lemmy.ca
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    43
    ·
    1 day ago

    Fucking Americans interfering with everyone’s elections, but threatening us if we try and interfere with theirs. It’s not like these private social media companies aren’t just an extended arm of the American government military complex.

    American exceptionalism at its best. Fuck off America.

  • myrmidex@belgae.social
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    24
    ·
    1 day ago

    I was delving into the article to find out what possible solution they would propose, I hadn’t expected this:

    Lula’s campaign wants Brazil’s top electoral court to order an immediate end to the content restrictions and pressure Meta to make up for the lost traction by doubling its reach to rectify the harm inflicted.

    • geneva_convenience@lemmy.mlOP
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      36
      arrow-down
      1
      ·
      1 day ago

      Based, actually. If anything, they should just ban Bolsonaro from the elections because of foreign interference.

      • ZeroHora@lemmy.ml
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        21
        arrow-down
        1
        ·
        1 day ago

        Authoritarian!!!

        You want Brazil to become Venezuela and ban the opposition that oppose the population? Tankie

          • ZeroHora@lemmy.ml
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            22
            arrow-down
            1
            ·
            1 day ago

            Last time that we tried we got Trump tariffs, a whole disinformation campaign about authoritarian Brazilian regime spawn and Meta bribed half of the senate.

            • Brunacho@feddit.cl
              link
              fedilink
              arrow-up
              9
              ·
              1 day ago

              Also cutting off whatsapp could backfire spectacularly, especially on less resourceful population. I’m all for it, but more organisedly than an immediate ban.

          • ghost_laptop@lemmy.ml
            link
            fedilink
            arrow-up
            9
            ·
            1 day ago

            i mean it has literally played against you, you need to get something from them first. i would first rob facebook and then i’d ban them from the country.

            • myrmidex@belgae.social
              link
              fedilink
              arrow-up
              6
              ·
              1 day ago

              I reckon Meta’s Brazil office isn’t much more than a desk and an underpaid employee. Not sure what would be there to rob.

        • geneva_convenience@lemmy.mlOP
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          17
          ·
          edit-2
          1 day ago

          Yes, the one based thing right-wingers do is to abuse the rule of law maximally push their agenda

          Meanwhile Liberals do nothing except put a small stop to the ratchet effect.

          You said it yourself, the right wingers already did it to Lula. Why shouldn’t he do the same to them?

          • FreudianCafe@lemmy.ml
            link
            fedilink
            arrow-up
            1
            arrow-down
            8
            ·
            1 day ago

            “Why shouldnt the left act as the right?”

            Well, so far that made bolsonaro win the first turn of elections, but maybe something will change in the next week when lula lowers the age to put kids in prison right?

            • ZeroHora@lemmy.ml
              link
              fedilink
              English
              arrow-up
              5
              ·
              23 hours ago

              Holy centrism.

              How the fuck is the left acting like the right? The reasons to ban the left? Vibes. The reason to ban the right? Betrayal

              • FreudianCafe@lemmy.ml
                link
                fedilink
                arrow-up
                1
                ·
                21 hours ago

                Lowering age for being put in prison, religious demagogy, spreading lies about the opponent, buying votes using social programs, prosecuting people for jokes, selling oil to israel, looking the other way when maduro was kidnaped, and so on. Gotta be blind to not see any of this

                Also

                • ZeroHora@lemmy.ml
                  link
                  fedilink
                  English
                  arrow-up
                  3
                  ·
                  20 hours ago

                  I don’t see how that has anything to do with banning or not the comprador.

                  Lula government is not even left-wing. He is the only left permitted to exist, the other two leftist presidents were overthrown in coups.

            • elixir_fan@lemmy.ml
              link
              fedilink
              arrow-up
              4
              ·
              1 day ago

              Leftists aren’t a misery cult, when we can win we should so that less people are harmed, what’s the point of performing idealism if it’s the most marginalized that get harmed?