According to a left-leaning advocacy group that studies disinformation, Meta and TikTok have directed millions of Brazilians toward unfounded allegations, bogus claims of electoral fraud, and extremist content in the days running up to Brazil's most important presidential election in decades.
Researchers from the advocacy group SumOfUs discovered that searches in the Portuguese language for common election-related terms like "fraud," "intervention," and "ballots" on Facebook and Instagram, which are owned by Meta, have overwhelmingly led people to organisations pushing claims questioning the validity of the vote or outright advocating for a military coup. For the keyword "ballots," five out of the top eight search results on TikTok were for phrases like "rigged ballots" and "ballots being manipulated."
The study is the most recent in a growing body of proof that social media platforms are failing to stop a flood of false information, some of it tinged with violence, from appearing on their platforms ahead of Sunday's runoff election between President Jair Bolsonaro and former President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. In one of the most aggressive legal actions against social media corporations ever, Brazilian lawmakers this week given the country's elections head the unilateral authority to require digital companies to erase false material within two hours of the content being posted.
Advocates have voiced concern that some posts would incite violence or raise more general doubts about the outcomes. Worries are increased by Elon Musk, a billionaire, now owning Twitter.
. Musk announced on Friday, his first day as Twitter's new owner, that he would halt any "important content judgments" and account reinstatements until he met with a new content moderation committee. The announcement effectively disbands parts of Twitter's toolkits for punishing accounts that violate the company's policies against hate speech, abuse, and disinformation during elections, including those of presidents and foreign trolls.
The right-wing Bolsonaro has often claimed without providing any proof that Brazil's long-standing use of voting machines makes them vulnerable to fraud. Supporters of President Donald Trump who questioned election results in the U.S. in 2020 under the slogan "Stop the Steal" have frequently seemed to use similar language.
Lula vs. Bolsonaro: A vote on Brazil's fledgling democracy
According to Brazilian researchers and the left-leaning human rights organisation Avaaz, some of the most popular narratives that were spread in Brazil prior to the first-round vote on October 2 included specific allegations of fraud, messages criticising the Supreme Electoral Court, and false calls for "inspectors" at the polls. Votes for the former president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva allegedly had been placed in ballot boxes ahead of time, according to popular audio and video on Telegram, WhatsApp, Facebook, and TikTok.
The left has likewise circulated false information. False claims that Bolsonaro has admitted to cannibalism and paedophilia are included in the communications.
Major social media platforms allowed Stop the Steal propaganda to proliferate mostly unchallenged up until January 6, 2021, when the violent repercussions of the discourse became apparent. Researchers discovered that Facebook groups in particular were important organising tools prior to the Stop the Steal event at the Capitol, and that Facebook's own software algorithms significantly contributed to the growth of such groups.
Since then, businesses like Meta and, to a lesser extent, TikTok, have vowed to improve, particularly by putting a stop to election-related content that can incite violence
However, the most recent data indicates that the corporations aren't living up to their claims, particularly outside of the US.
The safety of Brazilian voters is being treated less seriously by Meta and Google than it is by its American equivalents, according to Nell Greenberg, deputy director of Avaaz. She pointed out that the businesses have been labelling, downgrading, and removing content that encourages violence and disseminates inaccurate information about the upcoming midterm elections in the United States.
She stated in an email that "there are still important steps they can take to help secure a safe Election Day, and prevent a potential Brazilian "January 6th." "Will they actually perform any of them?"
Tom Reynolds, a spokeswoman for Meta, stated that the business has changed their search.
He claimed that starting October 2, individuals searching for phrases relating to the election have been routed to genuine material from Brazilian authorities.
In addition to applying labels to election-related articles on both apps, he said, "We worked to delete certain term recommendations that may result in disinformation." "Those electoral labels on Facebook were clicked by about 30 million Brazilians, who were then taken to the website of the Electoral Justice."
 |
