Hundreds Protest at Meta Headquarters in Brazil Against Far-Right Bias

“We cannot allow Donald Trump, Elon Musk, and Mark Zuckerberg to continue profiting from lies and manipulation,” said student leader Camila Moraes. “We must defend Brazilian sovereignty.”

Protesters targeted the multinational corporation Meta, on Monday, October 19, in Itaim Bibi, a neighborhood in São Paulo.

Meta owns WhatsApp, Instagram, and Facebook.

According to the organizers, roughly 500 people showed up to protest in front of Meta’s headquarters in São Paulo.

Those in attendance criticized Meta’s bias interference ahead of the Brazilian elections.

“We cannot claim to have fair elections when a company uses its economic, technical, and technological power to tip the scales in public opinion, which is exactly what is happening,” said Dani Silva, executive director of Ctrl+Z, one of the organizations behind the demonstration.

Sociologist and professor at the Federal University of the ABC, Sérgio Amadeu, agrees that Meta’s bias has hurt the campaign of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.

“Meta has acknowledged that there were technical issues, but these issues only harm one side: that of President Lula,” he said. “It is very difficult to imagine a Brazilian politician having a post with higher engagement than international artists like Beyoncé. Yet, that is what has been happening in Brazil with the [far-right Liberal Party congressman] Nikolas Ferreira. The Meta group is interfering in the election in a brutal way.”

Camila Moraes is the secretary-general of Brazil’s National Union of Students and an activist with the youth group, Levante Popular da Juventude. She said that the country has to work to regulate social media platforms.

“We cannot allow Donald Trump, Elon Musk, and Mark Zuckerberg to continue profiting from lies and manipulation,” Moraes said. “We must defend Brazilian sovereignty, and that is only possible under a Lula administration.”

During the election race, the social media accounts of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva were negatively impacted.

Meta acknowledged that “technical incidents” affected the ability to promote content posted by the candidate.

In a statement, Meta addressed accusations that it had influenced the Brazilian election by favoring the candidacy of Flávio Bolsonaro.

“Meta does not take sides in this or any other election, and allegations that we are favoring or interfering on behalf of any candidate or political group are false and unfounded,” Meta said. “Our systems do not rank or distribute content based on political ideology, and our rules, as well as their enforcement, apply equally to everyone.”

This article was originally published by Brasil de Fato. You can read the original version, in Portuguese, here.