Meta says they will remove content supporting the attempted coup of Bolsonaro supporters.
The tech giant – and parent company of Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp – intend to take on posts backing the attack of the Brazilian government in light of the election of the returning head of state, President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, a progressive and leftist politician on Sunday, 8 January 2023.
Thousands of supporters of the ex-head of state President Jair Bolsonaro destroyed the windows of the presidential palace, flooded portions of the Congress building via the sprinkler system, and attacked rooms in the Supreme Court, an attack that was believed to be exacerbated by social media.
A rep for the Mark Zuckerberg-founded firm said: “In advance of the election, we designated Brazil as a temporary high-risk location and have been removing content calling for people to take up arms or forcibly invade Congress, the Presidential palace and other federal buildings.
“We are also designating this as a violating event, which means we will remove content that supports or praises these actions,” he said. “We are actively following the situation and will continue removing content that violates our policies.”
YouTube revealed they were “closely tracking” the on the ground situation in Brazil.
The Google-owned site said: “Our Trust and Safety team is removing content that violates our Community Guidelines, including livestreams and videos inciting violence.
“In addition, our systems are prominently surfacing authoritative content on our homepage, at the top of search results, and in recommendations. We will remain vigilant as the situation continues to unfold.”
Telegram also responded to the events in Brasilia and condemned people using their service for “calls to violence”.
A spokesperson said: “Telegram is a platform that supports the right to free speech and peaceful protest. Calls to violence, however, are explicitly forbidden on our platform.
“Our moderators use a combination of proactive monitoring in public-facing parts of our platform in addition to accepting user reports, in order to remove such content.”
