Brazil’s top electoral court fines Meta’s Facebook $1.3 million for not fully complying with judicial orders during the recent presidential election runoff campaign
RIO DE JANEIRO -- Brazil’s top electoral court fined Meta’s Facebook $1.3 million for failing to fully comply with judicial orders during last month’s presidential election runoff campaign when the company was accused of political bias by President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva ’s team.
Justices ruled late Tuesday that Facebook had failed to adequately meet court demands related to allegations that its platform treated content from Lula and challenger Flávio Bolsonaro differently but said there was no evidence so far that the company attempted to influence the election’s outcome.
“Such a conclusion would require compelling evidence of intent, to be presented in full proceedings through the appropriate legal channels,” Justice Marco Aurélio Bellizze said in his decision that was unanimously accepted by his colleagues.
Ahead of the runoff vote, Lula’s campaign filed a lawsuit claiming that the company owning Instagram, Facebook and WhatsApp was using biased algorithms and AI restrictions to favor Bolsonaro.
The accusation gained traction among Lula's supporters and sparked a protest in front of Meta's offices in Sao Paulo.
Meta said in response that a series of recent platform issues stemmed from unrelated global technical glitches, strict anti-fraud measures and regulatory compliance rather…
