A 'political agent', per the Brazilian president's team: Meta fined over one million euros for unequal treatment between Lula and Bolsonaro in the presidential campaign
A fine of about €1.2 million was imposed by Brazilian courts on Meta, the owner of Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp, for failing to maintain equal treatment between Lula and Flavio Bolsonaro during the election campaign.
Brazilian justice on Tuesday imposed a fine on the technology giant Meta for failure to respect equal treatment on its platforms between President Lula and his rival Flávio Bolsonaro during the presidential election. Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva created a surprise by defeating Flavio Bolsonaro in the second round on October 25, after a campaign during which he denounced "interference" on the part of the company that owns Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp aimed at favoring his right-wing opponent, supported by Donald Trump. Meta evokes "technical problems" The Superior Electoral Tribunal (TSE) unanimously imposed a fine of 7.5 million reais (around 1.2 million euros) on the American firm, without however considering as proven the existence of a "deliberate action aimed at distorting the vote", according to the words of the judge-rapporteur Marco Aurélio Bellizze.
After his electoral victory, the left-wing leader promised to strengthen the regulation of social networks in Brazil. Under his mandate, a strict legal framework has already been adopted, making technology companies responsible for the content distributed by their users. Lula's campaign team had accused Meta of "algorithmic manipulation" aimed at harming their candidate.
Meta behaved like a “political agent”, penalizing Lula through “serious irregularities”, affirmed his lawyer Angelo Ferraro before the TSE. Meta denied taking sides, citing "technical problems" that did not only affect Brazil. Meta's lawyer, Patricia Marta Martins, told the TSE that the allegations of interference were "false and unfounded" and that the legal requirements had been "fully complied with" by the company.
During the presidential campaign, the TSE ordered Meta to take measures to guarantee equality in the distribution of content for the benefit of both candidates. The seven judges of the court followed the opinion of Judge Bellizze, according to which the company did not respect deadlines and lacked transparency by providing the TSE with information that was incomplete, "generic" or even written in another language. After refusing to acknowledge his electoral defeat, Senator Bolsonaro left Brazil for the United States, while he is under police investigation for alleged money laundering.
From Miami, he proclaimed himself the true “leader” of Brazil.
Machine-translated from French
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- BFM Business11 Nov, 07:17
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