Meta Ignores Brazilian Court Order to End Bolsonaro Favoritism

GuestFAUniverse

It's the same here. AfD content gets pushed on YT. No matter how often I ignore channels. Big tech is so rigged (intensional or not), the question if it is socially net negative has become rhetorical.

vlyan

Meta, along with every other large platform, had previously banned the sitting president of the United States.

aennassiri

At a point on time, there should be more structured and unbiased content in social media before elections in democratic countries to help people make their decisions. This should be regulated to avoid interference from anyone. The biggest problem now is that the billionaires behind social media nowadays will push for a liberal / right wing agenda in the west for their own interests.

mrtksn

It's interesting times where American Billionaires are deciding the politics in USA, South America and Europe. I am sure that everyone involved must be feeling invincible but this is how you build resentment that will last and in most cases result in conflicts or regulations. Probably Musk, Zuckerberg and Thiel will be fine but they will destroy the prospects of the upcoming libertarians and cement the Chinese dominance as they don't have a problem of unruly billionaires and the problem of someone getting rich by doing one thing getting the right to do decide on everything and screw it up for everyone. Sad, I really don't want to live in a China-style political system.

coffinbirth

Things like these happen if a state fails to secure its information space. Giving control over it to foreign entities means providing population wide manipulative power to foreign entities with adversarial intentions. Every state should have foreign agent laws (NGOs must register and must be transparent over their financials). Every state should have control over their information space (especially educational, social and news media). Russia and China understood, Brazil and Europe did not.

thrance

These billionaire ghouls need to answer for their many attempts on our Republics. Democracy can't survive when its most powerful members are working against it. We have to take them done ASAP, unless we want an encore of the 1940s.

microtonal

The daily fine is so meaninglessly small ($99,000 per day) that there is very little incentive to do anything.

khalic

And once again meta is interfering with election. The scum of the earth…

ETH_start

The Supreme Federal Court in Brazil has been notorious for censorship. The New York Times has found that it has ordered 223 account-blocking orders since 2020.

mentalgear

Let's face it: Tech CEOs have aligned with fascists (techno-fascism) because - and that's a general rule throughout history (see pre-WWII industrial titans aligned with Nazi-leaders): Industry leaders of large corporations and authoritarians share the same goal : ultimate control and power over others.

medlazik

"The most accomplished masterpiece of contemporary capitalism is neither the iPhone, nor the unicorn startup, nor even the visionary billionaire. No. Its flagship product, its anthropological jewel, its greatest achievement, is the right-wing poor person. A genuine feat of social engineering: materially deprived, yet rich in convictions that run counter to their own interests. They have been carefully molded. They have been taught that their problems always come from below or from next door — the immigrant, the welfare recipient, the civil servant, the unemployed — never from above. They have been taught to hate taxes while surviving thanks to public services. To defend heirs to fortunes while having nothing to pass on themselves. To applaud those who crush them, as long as they speak loudly and promise law and order. The right-wing poor person is a fascinating creature. They vote against their own interests with fervor, convinced that one day, perhaps, they too will find themselves on the right side of the fence. They mistake brutality for courage, authoritarianism for protection, injustice for merit. They are sold fear in a ready-made package, identity at bargain prices, and anger in bulk on a monthly subscription. At the dawn of this new world, the monsters do not emerge from the margins: they rise from the ballot boxes, television studios, and simplistic slogans. They thrive on manufactured misery and sabotaged political awareness. Capitalism has not merely produced poverty; it has achieved something far worse: it has made the poor docile, obedient, spiteful, and grateful. A masterpiece, I'm telling you!" Maximino Fernández

Paracompact

> According to the petition, two people asked [Meta AI] to pick a number between 1 and 25. They gave no instructions and made no reference to the election. In one attempt, the AI answered 13. In the other, it answered 22. Those are the party ballot numbers of Lula and Flávio Bolsonaro, respectively. The groups question the coincidence. My confidence in the validity of their claims tanked right about here. I'm all for regulating transparency into social media algorithms. Meta most certainly is compromised by foreign actors. But can we choose less stupid hills to die on than numerology and GIFs? Headline is not remotely supported by the evidence.

pjmlp

This will only get fixed when people get jailed by ignoring court orders, fines for big tech do nothing.

k__

We really need governments to force companies to mark bots and allow users to block all of them. It's getting ridiculous online.

KitN

This reminds me of the iconic hearing where someone asks "Why does Trumps image show up when I search idiot on Google?". Cuts to Sundar starring blankly.

Rover222

If you think Brazilian courts are neutral in general, ummm

shevy-java

These corporations ruin and sabotage democracy. Basically with corruption you can control what democracies do. We see this with the orange mafia in charge of the USA right now - even though sometimes it also yields entertainment, indirectly: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZvfePoni9eM

glimshe

I know 5 Brazilian people in the US and they are all voting for Bolsonaro. Apparently the Lula dude has been in power for 12 years (not in a row). No wonder they want him gone.

ricardobeat

I have a feeling the problem isn’t that malicious unfortunately. Right-wing folks are driven by social media since ~2016. Their content is emotional, aggressive and naturally conducive to more engagement. It’s what their base feeds on. So a lot of the situations described here are just standard ranking algorithms doing their job. But that begs the question: is the existence of these platforms that amplify divisive and inflammatory content the problem itself? I vote yes. The power of reaching a wide audience should not be handed off without any cross-checks.

mrlonglong

This undue influence of US policies on South American countries is most disturbing as right wing policies increase inequalities. It has to end. Millions of lives are at sake.