Brazilian court orders Meta to prove Lula and Bolsonaro get equal treatment

Brazil's top electoral court orders Meta to prove equal treatment of Lula and Bolsonaro

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Brazil's top electoral court has ordered Meta, the parent company of Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp, to prove that it is treating the campaigns of incumbent President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and Senator Flavio Bolsonaro equally on its online platforms.

The order comes after Lula's campaign alleged that Meta is suppressing his online content in order to boost Bolsonaro ahead of Sunday's decisive runoff election.

Meta has denied taking any actions to favour one side in the election, but previously said that some of Lula's campaign ads had been mistakenly deactivated due to technical errors.

The court order is in response to a complaint from Lula's campaign that Meta prevented his profile from being fully promoted on Instagram and from being visible in searches.

Civil society groups and digital rights monitors have supported those allegations, saying Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp have suppressed content from the left-leaning leader while boosting posts promoting Bolsonaro.

The penalty for noncompliance was increased in the order, from 500,000 Brazilian reals ($100,000) to one million reals ($200,000) per day.

The court has given Meta 24 hours to show that it is not favouring one presidential candidate over the other in its content feeds.