Meta rejects Lula's bias claims: Rules apply equally to all candidates

Meta responded to accusations by Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva that it favored his rival during the election campaign. The company said a series of recent problems stemmed less from "targeted pressure" than from global technical glitches, anti-fraud measures and legal regulations.

The company stressed that its systems do not serve content based on political ideology and that rules are applied equally. The statement said:

Meta applies the same rules to all candidates, parties and political views in Brazil, as in other elections around the world.

Meta

Lula's accusations

Lula had accused Meta, which owns Instagram, Facebook and WhatsApp, of using biased algorithms and AI restrictions to favor his rival Bolsonaro during the campaign. It was alleged that the visibility of accounts and ads linked to Bolsonaro was artificially inflated. It was also argued that images about Lula's campaign could not be created with WhatsApp's AI feature "Meta AI", while content supporting Bolsonaro was allowed.

Brazil's Superior Electoral Court had earlier ruled that Meta must treat Lula and his rival equally.

Claims about internal messages

A Brazilian newspaper published internal messages alleged to belong to Meta employees. According to the claims, employees acknowledged that technical glitches and algorithmic limits restricted the promotion of certain posts on accounts tied to Lula's campaign. The employees were also said to have argued that these failures were systemic.

Runoff election

Brazilians voted for president on October 4. Because no candidate exceeded 50 percent, the election went to a runoff on October 25. In the second round, incumbent President Lula will face Senator Flavio Bolsonaro, the son of former President Jair Bolsonaro and the right's candidate.