Brazil electoral court fines Meta US$1.3mil in Lula-Bolsonaro spat

Brazil’s electoral court ruled Tuesday that Meta had to pay a fine of about US$1.3 million for failing to comply with court orders after President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva alleged the tech giant tipped the scales toward his rival Flavio Bolsonaro during the latest presidential election.

Leftist leader Lula had accused Meta of “algorithmic manipulation” favouring Bolsonaro in the run-up to the Oct 25 runoff vote, in which he surprisingly prevailed despite coming in second during the first-round ballot.

The Superior Electoral Court (TSE) unanimously ruled to impose a fine of 7.5 million reais (around US$1.3 million) on Meta, the parent company of Facebook, WhatsApp and Telegram, finding the company missed deadlines and lacked transparency in its investigation.

However, the court’s reporting judge Marco Aurelio said the judicial body had not found evidence of any “deliberate action to skew the election.”

Meta had denied the accusations but acknowledged that some of Lula’s campaign ads had been mistakenly deactivated due to technical errors.

“We are going to have to regulate them,” Lula said of social media companies after his electoral victory.

After refusing to acknowledge his loss in the runoff, Flavio Bolsonaro fled Brazil to the US amid an ongoing investigation into him for alleged money laundering.