Minister votes to fine Meta R$7.5 million for failing to comply with decision during elections

According to the minister, Meta (owner of Facebook, WhatsApp and Instagram) failed to meet deadlines set by the TSE to adopt measures that would guarantee equal treatment among presidential candidates in the electoral dispute, presented information in a fragmented way to the court, in foreign and technical language, which made it difficult to verify technical difficulties highlighted to justify failures.

Bellizze stated that in this action it is not possible to point out that Meta acted deliberately to unbalance the claim, that this depends on the production of robust evidence, which is not possible in the process under analysis.

The ministers analyze an action taken by President Lula's campaign, who was re-elected, and point out that there was unequal treatment in the distribution of political content and the broadcast of electoral advertisements during the second round of elections.

The PT campaign accused the platform of selectively restricting the distribution of publications linked to its political field and of failing to comply with obligations set out in electoral legislation. It also questions limitations in promoting campaign advertisements and possible differences in the treatment given to candidacies.

Bellizze even determined that Meta would guarantee equal treatment between the campaigns of Lula and the defeated candidate Flávio Bolsonaro (PL). The decision was unanimously upheld by the TSE.

Even after the court's determination, the Electoral Attorney General's Office (PGE) assessed that the company Meta failed to comply with part of the Court's determinations for the treatment of content from presidential campaigns in the second round and that there was an indication of a new violation of equality in the use of the artificial intelligence tool.