Social media platform Meta has 48 hours to respond to claims by Brazil's leftwing candidate and incumbent President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva's campaign accusing the tech platform of blocking content on the company's platforms. Brazil's Superior Electoral Court on Saturday gave the social media giant 48 hours to clarify whether it reduced the reach of posts by Lula's campaign ahead of the tight October 25 run-off against rightwing candidate Flavio Bolsonaro.

In a statement, Lula's campaign reported instances where platforms owned by Meta – the parent company of Facebook, WhatsApp and Instagram – allegedly restricted the distribution of his content.

The campaign claimed that in recent days, Meta "prevented President Lula's profile from promoting Instagram feed posts", while a post from his official account "experienced an interruption in view counts, which affected its reach".

It also said that prior to last Sunday's first round of voting – in which Flavio Bolsonaro finished first – the profiles of Lula and other leftist leaders "suddenly disappeared from Instagram's search function".

The world is fucked as long as we continue to use corporate social media…

A tale as old as time, Facebook influencing elections

Bolsonaro is supported by the fanta fascist so his tech bro mates are almost certainly helping him.

lol. Lula could have fixed that decades ago, by banning Meta, and opening a drupal instance.