Facebook’s parent company Meta said on Monday it was removing content that supported or glorified the attack on Brazilian government buildings by anti-democracy demonstrators.
Elsewhere, tens of thousands of supporters of Brazil’s far-right former president Jair Bolsonaro smashed windows at the presidential palace, flooded parts of Congress and ransacked chambers at the Supreme Court in an uprising that lasted more than three hours.
“Ahead of the election, we designated Brazil as a temporary high-risk country and removed content that calls on people to take up arms or forcefully occupy Congress, the presidential palace and other federal buildings,” he was quoted as saying in a Meta statement.
“We are also defining this as an event of violence, which means we will remove content that supports or praises these actions.” “We are actively monitoring the situation and will continue to remove content that violates our policies.”
Leftist President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva took office on January 1 after defeating Bolsonaro in a runoff election in October, ending Brazil’s most right-wing government in decades.
Bolsonaro refused to concede defeat and some supporters have claimed the election was stolen, with people turning to social media and messaging platforms from Twitter, Telegram and TikTok to YouTube and Facebook to organize protests.
Thus, Brazil’s Supreme Court judge, Alexandre de Moraes, has ordered social media platforms to block users who spread anti-democratic propaganda.
Telegram, TikTok, Twitter and YouTube did not immediately respond to requests for comment.