Meta's board signals 'recurring' failures in election content moderation
Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg presents the new line of smart glasses during the Meta Connect event at the company's headquarters in Menlo Park, California, Sept. 23. Reuters-Yonhap
PARIS — The oversight board for social media giant Meta said Tuesday it found "recurrent enforcement failures" in content moderation related to the U.S. midterm elections and Brazil's presidential election.
Social media is a go-to source of electoral information for many voters, raising fears in several countries that it could swing results in favour of certain interests.
Meta's oversight board, in a statement, noted "the removal of political activist accounts during protests in the U.S. ahead of the midterm elections" and "technical restrictions that hit the accounts of a presidential candidate in Brazil leading to allegations of electoral interference."
It added, "It's clear that Meta must do more to ensure that its enforcement practices during elections are transparent and consistent, and that political speech is protected rather than stifled."
Brazil's top electoral court on Monday gave Meta 24 hours to prove it is treating President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and his right-wing opponent Flavio Bolsonaro equally.
Meta has denied taking any action to favor one side in Brazil's election, but previously said that some of Lula's campaign ads had been mistakenly deactivated due to technical errors not isolated to Brazil.
On Monday, the group run by billionaire Mark Zuckerberg apologised on X over another controversy in the United States.
An Instagram account called "No Kings" after citizen groups protesting what they saw as unconstitutional power grabs by President Donald Trump was temporarily deactivated on Saturday.
"We sincerely apologize," Meta spokesman Andy Stone said on X, blaming "automated systems" for taking down accounts that had "very high frequencies" of posts, shares or comments.
Meta's oversight board reiterated a call for the company to fulfil its promises to make fewer moderation mistakes around elections and political debate.
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