Meta employees said Lula's accounts were hindered during Brazil election, Folha reports

[u/Icy-Hunter-9600]

https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/meta-employees-said-lulas-accounts-were-hindered-during-brazil-election-folha-2026-10-16/

[u/kapilshar65]

The difference between intentional interference and a technical failure matter, but so does the outcome, if one campaign loses visibility while the other gets recommended, platforms need to explain what happened with the data, not just the assurances

[u/Little_Blackberry → u/kapilshar65]

It makes no difference. Following election law, only the candidate's followers will see posts from him on the social network. There is no possibility of impacting someone unless they follow the candidate. Our electoral law is rubbish, but it's the one in effect.

[u/Decaxyz → u/Little_Blackberry]

Oi? Que ladainha pra gringo ver é essa?

Eu não sigo nada do Flavio Bolsonaro e direto tem post pró a candidatura dele aparecendo pra mim.

Ta mentindo em inglês agora, caralho?

[u/Little_Blackberry → u/Decaxyz]

Go read the electoral law. You are being manipulated by people who profit from misinformation:

https://www.tse.jus.br/comunicacao/noticias/2026/Julho/por-dentro-das-eleicoes-conheca-as-regras-estabelecidas-para-a-propaganda-eleitoral

If you are saying that Flávio Bolsonaro's campaign is acting illegally, I suggest you report it to the TSE (Superior Electoral Court).

[u/OverlordOfPancakes → u/Little_Blackberry]

Your argument is incredibly flawed though. If Flavio's followers get delivered 90% of his posts, and Lula's only 10%, that does impact elections. People can change their minds, people can follow both candidates, etc. That is all assuming you are correct and that Meta isn't tampering with the code to intentionally benefit Flavio.

You're also forgetting that the algorithm is pushing for right wing accounts in general, not Flavio (e.g. Nikolas).

[u/Flaktroz → u/Little_Blackberry]

Confia pô, ele não fez nada de errado não, só teve apoio americano pra manipular as redes sociais e pagou empresa de manipulação.

https://www.intercept.com.br/2026/10/16/flavio-pagou-empresa-eua-sistema-manipular-eleicoes/

[u/Little_Blackberry → u/Flaktroz]

"Não há confirmação de que a campanha de Trump contratou o sistema nem evidências de que o sistema denunciado por Reed tenha sido usado por Flávio nas eleições de 2026."

Ou seja: a matéria é só fofoca.

[u/Flaktroz → u/Little_Blackberry]

"O total pago à Elytron pela campanha de Flávio soma R$ 600 mil, de acordo com o DivulgaCand, sistema da Justiça Eleitoral em que os candidatos informam suas despesas. Lá há três notas fiscais emitidas pela empresa. Duas delas, de R$ 500 mil cada, são de 16 de setembro de 2026 – uma, entretanto, consta como cancelada. A terceira nota é de 2 de outubro e totaliza R$ 100 mil."

As notas estão no sistema do governo deve ter pago de sacanagem né. Tu é uma cadelinha bolsonarista ou bot da elytron?

[u/Little_Blackberry → u/Flaktroz]

Irmão, que ilicitude é essa que gera nota fiscal? Você sabe o que é uma nota fiscal de serviço, jovem?

[u/tiagoosouzaa → u/Little_Blackberry]

Claro. Se está na lei então com certeza não foi desrespeitado não é mesmo?

Quem em sã consciência poderia imaginar que alguém ou alguma empresa desrespeitasse uma lei…

Nunca antes na história da humanidade vimos algo assim acontecer, não seria essa a primeira vez…

A solução para a criminalidade é simples: basta dizer “Está proibido cometer crimes”

[u/Little_Blackberry → u/tiagoosouzaa]

Eu disse claramente: se estiver supondo que já irregularidades, denuncie ao TSE. A lei serve pra ser seguida.

[u/Defiant_Regret3036 → u/Little_Blackberry]

A canalhice e a desfaçatez. A paumolice de não assumir o golpe. A direita é, acima de tudo, covarde. Patético

[u/Little_Blackberry → u/Defiant_Regret3036]

Eu não sei se tem golpe, você não sabe se tem golpe, mas quem souber que tem golpe, ao invés de chorar as pitangas podres, denuncie ao TSE para que os trangressores sejam punidos. É o que deve ser feito numa democracia.

[u/ChillGuyPokemonWhtvr → u/Little_Blackberry]

"It makes no difference" when the election result is a 50/50 and 1/3 of the electorate didn't vote on the first round, you were either born yesterday or you're a malicious actor lying on the internet.

[u/ImpressionFew2619]

Zuck and meta are cancer to society. Fox news on a global scale

[u/IllIIlIllIllIII → u/ImpressionFew2619]

Fox News is like a putty knife compared to the steamroller that is Facebook / Meta / Instagram etc. Meta has trackers all over the Internet and can tweak and tune their algorithms in real time to get the most "engagement" out of almost anyone. Data collection on billions of people is so unbelievably creepy and then of course the manipulation that can occur with it, and has, is terrifying.

[u/AbeFromanEast]

Meta (Zuckerberg personally, really) has held a deep grudge against Brazil's moderate governments for over a decade. It started in 2015 when the Brazilian government refused to make Meta the online portal for government services, as detailed in this memoir. It escalated from there when later Brazilian governments (pikachu gasp) regulated Meta.

With that context: you can see why Meta would be interested in having a right-wing, corporate bootlicking, fascist government take over Brazil. And it's probably going to happen, giving Meta the unregulated "we can do anything to you," environment they've long sought.

[u/UpsetKoalaBear → u/AbeFromanEast]

Copying and pasting a comment I have posted before:

It’s literally foreign political influence.

Facebook got internal research leaked showing they suppressed political movements.

They did it by suppressing people algorithmically and artificially reducing the reach of certain posts as well as shadowbans.

The algorithm actively pushes misinformation and polarising content. Facebook stated that the their algorithm wasn’t neutral in those reports.

They actually used other second and third world countries as test subjects to see how the algorithm pushes that type of content. Meta researchers did a test in India and found that it took 21 days for a persons entire feed to be taken up by misinformation and hate speech.

You nor I would ever know that is happening. That was back in 2021/2022, no doubt they are continuing to do the same thing and no doubt other platforms do the same thing.

Second and third world countries in general have been the biggest cases of social media being used to political influence in the world. I mean, just look at what Cambridge Analytica did to Trinidad and Tobago to win an election.

There are no protections in any countries against this. It’s just easier to do in those countries because there is less push back.

There is no doubt that algorithmic manipulation is being used by other social media companies now they have seen the power they can wield.

Does anyone truly think that Google, Facebook, Twitter or Reddit are NOT being asked to tweak their algorithms to benefit the current US administration? Does no one find it funny how Facebook removed fact checking as soon as Trump came into power?

Algorithmic social media has gone unchecked for too long.

Especially because these are foreign companies, whose algorithms are subject to a foreign government and who don’t have to show any accountability anywhere else.

They’ve been farming our data, using our data, influencing our politics and everything else in between. In that link I sent earlier, they literally suppressed a far-right political party in Germany under their own remit.

You can disagree with that party’s politics, but the question is why should a foreign company be allowed to influence political discussion in Europe?

Likewise, political suppression is subtle now. You don’t even know you’re being suppressed. Your posts get pushed down the algorithm, your views drop off or whatever else.

You literally wouldn’t be able to tell you’re being algorithmically censured. A shadowban is unnoticeable on most platforms and can kill a political movement.

It is no surprise that the rise in populism and lack of critical thinking happened immediately after 2016 when:

- Twitter introduced their algorithm and moved away from chronological feeds.

- IG introduced their algorithm and moved away from chronological feeds.

- Facebook changed their algorithm to monitor “Meaningful Social Interaction” and gave shit like “Angry” reacts more weight than Likes (see the Facebook leaks in 2021).

People call out the “legacy media” for being biased but are unhappy to call out algorithmic-based social media for being just as biased with shit like shadowbans or algorithmic deranking.

Yet people are still willing to go to bat for social media companies because they think it is “free speech”. Social media is not “free speech” if you are in an algorithmic jail cell already.

Zuckerberg was summoned to a UK parliamentary inquiry for algorithmic manipulation during the Brexit vote 3 times and simply never showed up.

Elon was summoned for Twitter’s role in the Southport riots and never showed up.

Even Rupert fucking Murdoch had the balls to show up when he was summoned for the phone hacking scandal because his companies were based in the UK.

We live in a world where Rupert Murdoch took more responsibility than American tech CEO’s.

If there’s anyone to blame for all the social media regulation you start to see, it’s the social media companies for flying too close to the sun.

They’ve stepped on the sovereignty of other nations by influencing politics and have done so for years.

[u/Lynda73 → u/UpsetKoalaBear]

Meta radicalized my sister here in the US.

[u/Snoo-4249 → u/Lynda73]

They not only radicalize, but they also brainwash people.

I met people who belive that the actualy president in Brasil is dead, and that tornadoes in the south of the country are a man made event caused by China, also antivax,and negationism.

This is quite common in here.

[u/Icy-Hunter-9600 → u/AbeFromanEast]

Thanks for the intel. I would love to read that book but I feel like it would be like a book about factory farming. I already know it happens and I don't think I could wallow in it for hours.

[u/NoiseEee3000 → u/Icy-Hunter-9600]

If you haven't read Careless People yet, it's stunning

[u/Icy-Hunter-9600 → u/NoiseEee3000]

I believe you. I've just been stunned enough at this point, so I let my fellow Redditors educate me on the finer points. I do no support Meta. I do not use their products.

[u/UpsetKoalaBear → u/Icy-Hunter-9600]

Check out the Facebook Leaks from 2021. Direct evidence political influence using algorithms.

They are not the only ones doing this either.

[u/rapora9 → u/AbeFromanEast]

These people should not hold power like that. I don't see how anyone who claims to be for democracy could support private persons leading such massively influential companies ON TOP OF being billionaires and thus having another great source of power in their hands. It is simply undemocratic.

[u/wowbaggerBR]

I'm shocked, absolutely stunned, who could've predicted this, how such a thing could happen

[u/HoosierRed → u/wowbaggerBR]

As Mark awkwardly insists that free speech for all is best, here he slithers.

[u/ShivamH9R]

nobody accidentally suppresses a presidential campaign

[u/cathercules]

Facebook has been complicit in genocide and civil wars and they will do the same in the USA, you can already see it with the rhetoric and misinformation they allow to be pervasive on their platform. Fuck Zuckerberg and fuck the politicians who allow social media companies to continue as they are with zero regulation.

[u/ValisCode]

We are under attack :( Brazilians use Meta's apps a lot (Instagram and WhatsApp the most). So the influence in our country is huge. Some Brazilian far right politicians in the last weeks have more views than very famous people like Mr Beast, Neymar, Kardashians, etc.

[u/EugeneOregonDad]

Remember, you can't spell metastasized without Meta.

[u/neresni-K]

Shut down all those “platforms”. Permanently not just for elections.

[u/Snoo26837]

Everything except that he was a loser and a dictator who jailed a man for no reason, but his days are numbered and the revenge is coming from the son.

[u/Icy-Hunter-9600 → u/Snoo26837]

Jailed for no reason? Is an attempted coup not a reason? https://www.reuters.com/world/brazils-bolsonaro-had-direct-role-planning-coup-attempt-police-say-2024-11-26/

[u/wowbaggerBR → u/Snoo26837]

He didn't, justice system put a guy who planned to assassinate the goddamn president and vice-president behind bars.

And, like, how is the guy who won 3 elections a dictator?