Facebook meddling in Brazilian election – Lula campaign

The US tech giant is suppressing ads ahead of a runoff against Flavio Bolsonaro, the president’s team says Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva’s campaign has accused US tech giant Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, of interfering in the country’s presidential election in favor of his right-wing rival, Flavio Bolsonaro.In a statement on Saturday, Lula’s Workers’ Party (PT) accused Meta of repeatedly restricting its campaign activities while failing to provide convincing explanations. “The complete lack of transparency in the company’s systems makes these explanations scarce and opaque,” the statement read.The campaign said the latest incident occurred between October 9 and 10, when Meta allegedly prevented Lula’s official Instagram account from boosting posts. It also claimed that the view count on one of Lula’s Instagram posts stopped increasing on October 8, affecting its reach, with similar problems registered on other accounts supporting the incumbent. An internal analysis also suggested that Meta’s algorithms were skewed in favor of Bolsonaro, Lula’s campaign alleged, adding that posts on the right-wing contender’s page generated, on average, 2.96 tim...