[Do Not Interfere, Meta!]

Ahead of the presidential runoff election held on the 25th local time, supporters of Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, who is running for re-election, held a protest in front of Meta's office in Sao Paulo.

Suspicion arose after local media exposed internal Meta messages revealing that the company restricted paid promotion features for Lula's Instagram account while allowing algorithms to recommend the Instagram and WhatsApp accounts of his rival, Jair Bolsonaro.

[Camilo Santana / Coordinator, Lula's Presidential Campaign : We cannot tolerate the election interference by big tech companies that is happening in Brazil. Especially not Meta's interference.]

President Lula's camp, which has clashed with U.S. President Donald Trump over tariff issues and other matters, suspects election interference by Meta, which has maintained close ties with Trump.

Brazil's Superior Electoral Court stated that there is no evidence the action was intentional, but nonetheless issued an order prohibiting Meta from engaging in discriminatory practices, such as excluding specific candidates' posts from algorithms or restricting their appearance in search results.

Similar suspicions have emerged in the United States ahead of the midterm elections.

On the 17th local time, amid raging "No Kings" protests opposing the Trump administration, access to the Instagram account of the group that organized the protests was suddenly blocked for 90 minutes.

The leader of the organization claimed that Meta intentionally sought to obstruct the protests.

[Ezra Levin / Co-founder, No Kings Coalition : We heard from our team that Mark Zuckerberg's Meta suspended the Instagram account of the No Kings Coalition. We were locked out of our account.]

Meta explained that the incident was an error caused by a sudden surge in traffic within a short period, but even Meta's independent oversight panel, the Oversight Board, criticized both incidents, stating they suppressed political speech and undermined the fairness of elections.

Controversy over big digital companies undermining election fairness and democracy, as they hold control over social media channels and exert massive influence on public opinion worldwide, is expected to intensify further.

Blocking Access Only to Specific Candidate's Account?… Controversy Surrounding Meta's "Election Interference" (SBS 8 News, October 25, 2026)

(Reported by Yu Deok-ki | Written by Bae Junhwi | Video Editing by Ahn Yeojin | Design by Yang Gi-tae | Produced by SBS Digital News)