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Brazilians living in Dublin protested outside Meta’s Irish office on Friday, calling for greater transparency over claims the platform is favouring Flávio Bolsonaro in Brazil’s election. The protest adds a visible diaspora voice to a dispute that has already drawn an order from Brazil’s top electoral court.

The Irish Times reports that protesters objected to alleged changes in the reach of posts and to AI-related restrictions. Those are allegations, not proof that Meta favoured a candidate. Meta has blamed technical problems for reduced reach and denied favouring Bolsonaro, the paper reports. The court has ordered Meta to apply equal treatment to both candidates’ campaigns, with a fine for non-compliance, according to the Irish Times. When an election platform is accused of bias, should the burden be on the company to show its systems treated candidates equally?

Discuss: Should election platforms have to show evidence that their systems treated candidates equally, or is that an unrealistic burden on private companies?

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