Brazil electoral court fines Meta, sees no deliberate election bias
META•Brazil's electoral court fined Meta 7.5 million reais ($1.34 million) for incomplete and delayed responses to judicial orders during the presidential runoff campaign. The court said it had found no evidence so far that Meta deliberately acted to influence the election.
1. Court imposes fine
Brazil's top electoral court unanimously fined Meta 7.5 million reais ($1.34 million) for failing to fully comply with judicial orders during last month's presidential election runoff campaign. The orders concerned allegations that Facebook treated content from the rival campaigns of President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and Senator Flavio Bolsonaro differently.
2. No deliberate bias found
The court said Meta had provided some information and documents, but parts of its orders were not complied with, only partially fulfilled or completed after deadlines. Justice Marco Aurelio Bellizze wrote that the records showed technical failures acknowledged by Facebook, but did not provide evidence of deliberate action to unbalance the election; he said such a conclusion would require robust evidence in appropriate legal proceedings.
3. Fine details
Bellizze said the fine reflected delays, incomplete information and difficulties verifying data. It comprised three daily fines of 500,000 reais from October 17 to 19 and six daily fines of 1 million reais from October 20 to 25. Lula's coalition had complained about restrictions on its posts, purportedly inauthentic accounts, identification of AI-generated content and differences in Meta's tools.
