Meta employees say Brazilian President Lula's account was restricted during the election

According to a report by Brazil's Folha de S.Paulo, Meta employees acknowledged in internal communications the negative impact of restrictions placed on Brazilian President Lula's Instagram account during the election, and that the platform also recommended the personal page and WhatsApp channel of his challenger, Flavio Bolsonaro. Meta told Reuters that the technical issues mentioned in the report had long been public, that the relevant conversations concerned only the severity of the issues and not political interference, and that any suggestion that Meta favored one side is unfounded. Brazil's Superior Electoral Court had previously ruled that Meta must immediately treat the two candidates equally, and that failure to comply would incur a fine of 500,000 reais (about $98,700) per day.