Meta denies favoring Brazil candidates, adopts human review of ad blocks

By Maryam Ashalem de Andres

ISTANBUL (AA) - Meta on Tuesday denied favoring either presidential candidate in Brazil's upcoming runoff and told the electoral court it introduced mandatory human reviews of automated restrictions on campaign advertising accounts, according to media reports.

The response followed a complaint by Lula's Workers' Party (PT) accusing Meta of restricting his campaign content while favoring Flavio Bolsonaro, Brazilian news outlet UOL reported.

Meta said campaign advertising account restrictions will undergo mandatory human review within two hours through Sunday’s runoff.

The company denied favoring either candidate and asked the court not to impose fines, saying it had complied with the orders in good faith.

The dispute follows measures ordered by the Superior Electoral Court (TSE) to ensure equal treatment of the candidates.

The court also required adjustments to Meta's artificial intelligence tools after concerns emerged about their ability to generate election-related content about the candidates.

Meta said it reviewed 1,204 posts flagged for AI-generated content, removing or blocking 720 for violating electoral labeling rules. Of the rest, 270 were properly labeled and 214 were non-electoral.

The company also introduced a whitelist restricting paid political advertising in Brazil to candidates, parties, coalitions and federations registered with the TSE.

Meta said its Instagram’s technical limitations forced it to disable recommendations for entire collaborative posts rather than only a candidate’s profile.

It requested an urgent meeting with the TSE to discuss the remaining technical issues ahead of the runoff.

The dispute centers on allegations that Meta's content moderation could affect electoral fairness, which the company denies.

The runoff between Lula and Bolsonaro is scheduled for Oct. 25.

Mariam Ashalem De Andres