Brazil judges determined that the social media giant did not comply completely with court orders
The Superior Electoral Court of Brazil has imposed a fine of 7.5 million reals (US$1.3 million) on Facebook after judges ruled that the social media giant did not comply absolutely with court orders set down during the country’s presidential election runoff campaign last month, reported The Associated Press.
The team of current president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva had claimed that Facebook displayed political bias in its handling of content posted by rival presidential candidate Flávio Bolsonaro. Prior to the runoff vote, Lula’s campaign sued Meta over its supposed use of biased algorithms and AI limitations to help Bolsonaro.
The actions of Lula’s team spurred supporters to stage a protest at Meta’s Sao Paulo offices.
Meta claimed that it did not intentionally suppress content. It pointed to international technical issues, as well as stringent anti-fraud measures and regulatory compliance, as reasons for issues within Facebook. The social media giant stressed that it assigned the same weight to all candidates and perspectives in Brazil.
The company added that it had implemented measures to facilitate the fair treatment of content from both Lula’s and Bolsonaro’s campaigns.
In a judgment made late Tuesday November 10, judges determined that the accusation of political bias in Bolsonaro’s favour lacked proof.
“Such a conclusion would require compelling evidence of intent, to be presented in full proceedings through the appropriate legal channels,” said justice Marco Aurélio Bellizze in the decision, a snippet of which was published by AP News.
However, the justice found that Facebook had disregarded some court orders set down in response to the claims made by Lula’s campaign. A snippet of a statement published by AP News regarding the court’s decision cited Facebook’s conduct “in relation to the court order as a whole, considering, in particular, the delays, incomplete information and the difficulty verifying certain data.”
Bellizze flagged that while Facebook had filed statements and documents related to the measures, it complied with some court orders only partially or with delay. The fine of 7.5 million reals is based on three days’ worth of 500,000-real penalties over October 17-19 and six days’ worth of 1 million real fines over October 20-25.
