SAO PAULO, Oct 16 (Reuters) - Meta employees acknowledged in internal communications that the Instagram accounts of Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva were hindered by restrictions during the country's election, newspaper Folha de S.Paulo reported on Friday, citing messages it reviewed.
The messages also acknowledged the platform recommended the profile of challenger Senator Flavio Bolsonaro, as well as his WhatsApp channel, according to the report.
• Meta said the technical issues cited in the report were already public and the conversations it referenced related solely to the severity of the issues, not political interference. "Any suggestion that Meta favors one side is false," it added in a statement
• Lula will face Bolsonaro in a runoff on October 25, following a stronger-than-expected performance by the senator in the first-round vote earlier this month
• Lula's camp said earlier this week it would file a complaint before the Organization of American States alleging that Meta, which owns Instagram, WhatsApp and Facebook, manipulated social media during Brazil's election
• According to Lula's party, some of his posts appeared without a share button, suffered reduced reach, and had stories that prevented reactions and sharing, in addition to appearing without audio or playing at accelerated speed
• A justice at Brazil's top electoral court ordered the company on Thursday not to unjustifiably limit the reach of political content related to both candidates through the end of the runoff campaign
• The ruling also stipulated that Meta AI, the company's artificial intelligence chatbot, must not favor either candidate when generating election-related content
(Reporting by Isabel Teles; Editing by Chris Reese and Rod Nickel)
