Meta fined in Brazil election case as court finds no deliberate bias

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Meta fined in Brazil election

Highlights

Brazil's TSE unanimously rules Facebook failed to fully comply with court demands over alleged unequal content treatment during the Lula-Bolsonaro election campaign.
Meta faces fines totaling 6.5 million reais for three days at 500,000 reais daily and six days at 1 million reais daily due to delays and incomplete compliance.
Lula's re-election, following a significant social media campaign, intensifies his commitment to stricter social media regulation and combating digital platform interference in Brazil.

Court ruling and compliance failures

As reported by Reuters, Brazil's top electoral court, known as the TSE, rules unanimously that Facebook does not adequately meet court demands tied to allegations that its platform treated content from the rival campaigns of President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and Senator Flavio Bolsonaro differently.

Lula's coalition files the complaint before the vote, alleging restrictions on the distribution of its posts, the activity of purportedly inauthentic accounts, failures in identifying AI-generated content and asymmetries in the operation of Meta's tools. Meta tells the court last month that it adopts measures to ensure equal treatment of the two campaigns, but does not immediately reply to a new request for comment.

The court says Meta provides some information and documents on those measures, but finds that parts of its orders are not complied with, are only partially fulfilled, or are carried out after deadlines pass. Justice Marco Aurelio Bellizze writes that the records contain technical failures acknowledged by Facebook itself, while saying there are no elements so far to support a preliminary conclusion of deliberate action to unbalance the election.

Regulatory pressure and political implications

Bellizze says the penalty reflects Meta's overall conduct in responding to the court orders, including delays, incomplete information and difficulties in verifying some of the submitted data. The total amount corresponds to three daily fines of 500,000 reais from October 17 to 19 and six days of fines of 1 million reais per day from October 20 to 25.

The ruling comes as Lula unexpectedly secures re-election over Bolsonaro after his team mobilizes a large social media campaign. Lula has long vowed to tighten rules on social media in Brazil, and in his victory speech says the country has to overcome foreign interference in the election through digital platforms that it will have to regulate.

Earlier, we reported on the Ibovespa sell-off that followed Lula’s re-election amid fiscal-policy worries.

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