Latin American Legislators Demand Meta to Respect Democracy and Avoid Interference in Brazil’s Elections

Original article: Parlamentarios de América Latina exigen a Meta a respetar la democracia y no interferir en elecciones de Brasil

A coalition of lawmakers from Latin America has issued a public statement urging Meta, the parent company of Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp, to respect democracy and refrain from interfering in the presidential elections in Brazil.

On the eve of the runoff election scheduled for this Sunday, July 25, the legislators voiced their concerns over recent troubling incidents.

“According to allegations from President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva’s campaign and reports from Brazilian media, the candidate’s ad account was disabled during the campaign. Furthermore, his posts experienced nearly a day of restrictions on Instagram, while those of his opponent ran normally,” they noted.

They reminded that internal communications from Meta acknowledged limitations on the account of the incumbent and reelection candidate from the Workers’ Party, and the company attributed these events to «technical failures».

“Nevertheless, Brazil’s Superior Electoral Court had to mandate equal treatment for both candidates under the threat of hefty fines,” they stated in their declaration.

The lawmakers argued that “whether by mistake or design, the result remains the same,” as a foreign private company, which effectively controls a country’s digital political advertising, disrupts the competitive conditions of an election.

“This is an affront to democracy and to the right of peoples to freely choose their authorities,” they warned.

According to the legislators, Meta’s interference in Brazil’s elections could set a precedent that may occur in other Latin American countries.

“Today it’s Brazil, but tomorrow it could be any of our countries. Latin America cannot accept that its electoral processes are subject to opaque decisions made thousands of kilometers away,” they indicated.

The statement concludes with a direct appeal to the U.S.-based multinational tech company: “We emphatically call on Meta to refrain from interfering, through its algorithms, in the democratic election of a sovereign country like Brazil.”

Signing the declaration were Chilean deputies Jaime Araya, Irací Hassler, Daniela Serrano, Gonzalo Winter, Lorena Pizarro, Gael Yeomans, Emilia Schneider, Daniel Manouchehri, Héctor Ulloa, Consuelo Veloso, Nelson Venegas, Carolina Cucumides, and Cristian Tapia; Senator Karol Cariola of Chile; Argentine deputies Carolina Basualto, Gabriel Fuks, and Esteban Paulón; Argentine Parlasur deputies Franco Metaza, Raúl Bittel, Victoria Donda, Gustavo Arrieta, and Karolina Bobadilla; and Guatemalan deputies Andrea Reyes and Sonia Gutiérrez.

A total of 158 million Brazilians are called to the polls this Sunday to choose the next President of the Republic between the progressive Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and far-right candidate Flávio Bolsonaro.