Meta’s São Paulo office drew hundreds of protesters on Monday, some wearing Mark Zuckerberg masks and carrying a “Meta, don’t interfere” banner, over claims the company is favoring Flávio Bolsonaro over President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva before Brazil’s October 25 runoff. Brazil’s Superior Electoral Court ordered Meta on October 15 to treat both candidates equally or pay 500,000 reais a day, after Lula’s campaign said Meta’s algorithms had cut his posts’ reach and removed share buttons. Meta staff acknowledged restrictions on Lula’s Instagram accounts in internal messages seen by Folha de S.Paulo. Meta has told the court it complied with the order, and it denied any political bias, saying the restrictions came from known technical problems.
