Brazil’s Superior Electoral Tribunal sentenced Meta to pay a fine of approximately 1.2 million euros, equivalent to $1.3 million, for violating the Court’s provisions on equal treatment of candidates during the presidential campaign. The decision, taken with seven votes to zero, comes after the appeal of the coalition that supported the re-election of Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. Its committee accused the company of favoring Senator Flávio Bolsonaro during the second round. The court did not find deliberate interference in favor of the challenger.
Blocking ads on Instagram is WhatsApp’s “behavior”.
According to Lula’s coalition, the president’s campaign was unable to pay for its content on Instagram for nearly 24 hours between October 9 and 10. Meta attributed the crash to a global failure. The episode is among those contested by the president’s committee, who was then re-elected in the run-off.
The court also examined the behavior of WhatsApp’s artificial intelligence assistant. To a request to create an electoral image with Lula’s name and the number 13, his party code to be typed on the electronic ballot, the assistant responded with a refusal. He had instead accepted a similar request with the name of Flávio Bolsonaro and the number 22, that of his political party.
Judge Nauê Bernardo found that the disparity had had consequences on the election cycle, saying that it had “provably” influenced the country’s elections.