Cut through the corporate damage-control flimflam – “technical” issues and “mistakes” but no politics, they say – and the Oversight Board of Meta, the parent company of Facebook, WhatsApp, and Instagram has just had to deny-but-really-admit that its platforms have been caught trying to influence Brazil’s upcoming presidential elections. In essence, they have favored the challenger and US favorite Flavio Bolsonaro, commonly referred to as “Flavio” in Brazil, and harmed the incumbent Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, usually called “Lula.”
Meta, to be clear, hasn’t (sort of) fessed up because Mark Zuckerberg’s behemoth has suddenly discovered a conscience. Instead, it was pressure from Brazilian investigative reporting that has forced the company’s hand.
Whatever effect the American meddling will have on the election result, one thing is already certain: it has made the contest and the fierce political struggle behind it even more polarized than before. A few days before the decisive and very close final round, Lula and Flavio Bolosonaro are trying to have each other excluded from the election: when dealing with a badly divided country, just leave it to Washington to make everything even more vicious.
