Internal communications among Meta employees reveal that Instagram accounts linked to Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva experienced restrictions during the country’s recent election, according to a report by Folha de S Paulo. These communications acknowledged that the platform’s algorithms recommended content from Senator Flavio Bolsonaro, Lula’s challenger, including Bolsonaro’s Instagram profile and WhatsApp channel.
The election is headed to a runoff scheduled for October 25, following Bolsonaro’s unexpectedly strong showing in the first round earlier this month. Lula’s team has accused Meta, which owns Instagram, WhatsApp, and Facebook, of manipulating social media engagement during the electoral process. They claim that several of Lula’s posts were limited in functionality—missing share buttons, restricted in reach, disabling reactions and sharing on stories, and experiencing audio or playback issues.
In response to these concerns, Brazil’s top electoral court issued an order on Thursday directing Meta not to unjustifiably restrict the visibility of political content related to either candidate until the conclusion of the runoff campaign. The court also mandated that Meta’s artificial intelligence chatbot must remain impartial and avoid favoring any candidate when generating election-related content.
Meta has not publicly responded to requests for comment on the reported internal communications or the court ruling. Meanwhile, Lula’s camp has stated plans to lodge a formal complaint with the Organisation of American States, asserting that Meta’s platform behavior adversely affected the fairness of the electoral process. The situation highlights ongoing scrutiny over the role of social media companies in elections and the challenges of ensuring equal digital representation for all candidates.