Meta Committee points to moderation failures in Brazilian elections

Meta Committee points to moderation failures in Brazilian elections The Meta Oversight Committee, the American digital corporation that controls Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp, stated this Tuesday (20) that it has found "recurrent failures" in applying rules related to ensuring electoral integrity in the circulation of content about the Brazilian presidential elections. The body's statement, which independently supervises the group's platforms, also points to concerns about midterm elections in the United States, which will determine the new composition of the country's Congress. "From the removal of political activist accounts during protests in the United States, to the technical restrictions that affected the accounts of a presidential candidate in Brazil, leading to accusations of electoral interference, it is clear that Meta needs to do more to ensure that its practices for applying rules during elections are transparent and consistent and that political discourse is protected, rather than silenced," the panel stated in a release. The Committee highlighted that during elections and periods of greater political tension, Meta's content moderation failures usually manifest in two ways: the overly strict application of rules, which suppresses political discourse, and the insufficient application of these rules, which compromises electoral integrity, specifically citing the Brazilian case involving promotion restrictions applied to the account of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT), who is seeking re-election against Flávio Bolsonaro (PL). "The overly strict application of Meta's anti-fraud policies to the ad accounts of the President of Brazil, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, represents a failure that should have been referred to an internal team of specialists responsible for analyzing cases," the body said. In a statement sent on Monday evening (19) to the Superior Electoral Court (TSE), Meta denied favoring the reach of posts in favor of any of the presidential candidates. In the document, the company asserts that "the content related to the two candidacies is treated equally and non-discriminatorily" and that a technical document attached to the process "describes the mechanism that ensures this equality." Meta responded to a question from Minister Marco Aurélio Bellizze, who last week ordered the company to provide information about the measures taken to ensure equal treatment for the two candidates competing in the second round of the presidential election. Bellizze responded to the request of the Brasil Pronto pra Mais coalition, from President Lula, who complained about the favoritism shown to posts by the opponent Flávio Bolsonaro. Still on Monday afternoon (19), hundreds of protesters demonstrated in São Paulo, in the area of Meta and Google headquarters, in the western zone of São Paulo. With the slogan "Meta, don't meddle," participants pointed to censorship in the participation of activists on social networks, lack of neutrality in content mediation, and the defense of their own interests in managing content and communities. The Meta Oversight Council also referred to the 2022 elections, when it asked the company "to build a measurable structure to evaluate its efforts to protect electoral integrity, including the sharing of relevant indicators." "Although Meta frequently cites general activity indicators, such as the number of ads stored or accounts removed, the company has not yet established public indicators that transparently evaluate the effectiveness of its rule application measures—nor their most critical shortcomings. This needs to change," demanded the council.