Meta faces Brazil court deadline in Lula-Bolsonaro race

Brazil's top electoral court gave Meta 24 hours on Monday to prove it is treating President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and his opponent Flavio Bolsonaro equally before Brazil's October 25 presidential runoff.

The order followed allegations from Lula's campaign that Meta, which owns Facebook, WhatsApp and Instagram, was suppressing his online content to boost Bolsonaro. Meta denies taking any action to favour one side.

Meta has previously said some Lula campaign ads were mistakenly deactivated because of technical errors not isolated to Brazil. Lula's campaign has also alleged inconsistencies on WhatsApp's artificial intelligence tool, saying Lula-related election content was limited but Bolsonaro-related content was not.

A Superior Electoral Court judge had ordered Meta on Thursday to apply the same rules to both candidates through the runoff, with a possible daily fine of 500,000 reais, about $100,000. A Monday ruling said Meta had failed to demonstrate compliance and raised the possible fine to one million reais, about $200,000, per day, according to a court document seen by AFP.

Bolsonaro, 45, the son of former president Jair Bolsonaro, led the first round earlier this month. Lula, who turns 81 next week, is seeking re-election, and polls predict a close runoff.