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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
World
Tiago Rogero in Rio de Janeiro

Battle over Meta’s alleged Bolsonaro bias intensifies days before Brazil presidential runoff

Protesters outside Meta’s headquarters in São Paulo holding up cardboard cutouts of chief executive Mark Zuckerberg and US president Donald Trump.
Brazilians protested outside Meta’s headquarters in São Paulo this week, alleging the tech firm restricted Lula’s reach. Photograph: Nelson Almeida/AFP/Getty Images

Five days after his defeat in the first round of the Brazilian presidential election, leftwing president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva spent almost 24 hours unable to boost his Instagram posts, while his opponent, far-right senator Flávio Bolsonaro, could.

Lula’s lawyers included the episode in a list of incidents that they submitted to the electoral court and international observers as “evidence” that Meta, Instagram’s owner, was actively trying to interfere in Brazil’s election in Bolsonaro’s favour.

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