‘Hands off’: Brazilians protest outside Meta in Dublin over claims of election bias

Brazilians living in Dublin protested outside Meta’s Irish office on Friday amid claims the social media giant is influencing Brazil’s highly polarised election in favour of Flávio Bolsonaro.

Protesters supporting president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva in the country’s runoff election taking place later this month held signs reading, “Hands off Brazilian elections,” and, “Meta, stay out of it.”

The demonstrators have called for greater transparency from social media platforms after Lula filed a complaint in court accusing the tech company behind Instagram, Facebook and WhatsApp of using biased algorithms and AI restrictions to favour his opponent, Bolsonaro.

Flávio is the son of former president Jair Bolsonaro, who is serving a 27-year prison sentence after being convicted over a plot to overturn the 2022 election result.

Brazil’s top electoral court ruled on Thursday that Meta must adopt measures to immediately secure equal treatment of the two candidates in advance of the October 25th election.

“Fake news is becoming normalised, and falsehoods are being treated as the truth. This is worrying,” said protester Erika Normande at Meta’s Dublin’s offices on Friday evening.

“Meta has been changing the reach of posts and interfering in our elections. We are here to protest against interference in president Lula’s campaign,” said another, Maíra Amaral.

Flávio attempted to woo the support of US president Donald Trump and his administration, meeting him at the White House in May. He has received public praise from Trump.

Lula, who is seeking a fourth presidential term, has said the president’s posts have suffered reduced reach and visibility, while his team have faced difficulties promoting content on Instagram. They also allege that Meta’s distribution systems favour Flávio.

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Lula’s campaign has questioned why 255 accounts it considers inauthentic, allegedly operated using artificial intelligence, remain active.

It filed a complaint with Brazil’s Superior Electoral Court after the first round of voting. On October 10th, the court gave Meta 48 hours to explain its content distribution practices.

The company blamed the reduced reach on technical problems, denied favouring Flávio Bolsonaro, and said it complies with electoral rules and treats candidates equally.

“We are now completely controlled by platforms that are based outside our country,” said André Almo, a protester outside Meta’s head office in Dublin.

“Brazil is being held hostage by Meta, which is changing its algorithms in favour of a candidate who follows the American agenda.”

Brazil has almost 160 million registered voters eligible to vote in the 2026 election.

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In the first round of the election, on October 4th, Flávio Bolsonaro finished the first round with 47 per cent of valid votes, compared with 45 per cent for Lula.

Slightly more than 20 per cent of voters did not cast votes, the highest abstention rate in the first round of a Brazilian presidential election since 1998.

There are an estimated 80,000 Brazilians living in Ireland, according to the Brazilian embassy, with more than 16,700 registered to vote here.

One protester in Dublin claims that Brazil was “suffering from American digital colonisation”.