Facebook, YouTube remove content supporting Brazil uprising


By MYBRANDBOOK


Facebook, YouTube remove content supporting Brazil uprising

Facebook parent Meta and Google’s video platform YouTube said on Monday that they had to remove content supporting or praising the weekend vandalizing of Brazilian government buildings by anti-democratic demonstrators.

 

In a more than three hour uprising, tens of thousands of supporters of Brazil’s far-right former President Jair Bolsonaro smashed presidential palace windows, flooded parts of Congress with a sprinkler system and ransacked rooms in the Supreme Court.

 

“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,” a Meta spokesman said.

 

“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.”

 

Leftist President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva joined office on Jan. 1 after defeating Bolsonaro in a runoff election in October, which put to an end Brazil’s most right-wing government in decades.

 

Bolsonaro refused to concede defeat with some supporters claiming that the election was stolen. People even took to social media and messaging platforms like Twitter, Telegram and TikTok, YouTube and Facebook, to organise protests.

 

A spokesperson for YouTube told Reuters that the video-sharing company was “closely tracking” the situation in Brazil, where social media platforms have been ordered to block users spreading anti-democratic propaganda.

 

“Our Trust and Safety team is removing content that violates our Community Guidelines, including livestreams and videos inciting violence,” the spokesperson said.

 

“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,” the spokesperson said.

 

Sunday’s occupation of the government buildings had been planned for at least two weeks by Bolsonaro’s supporters in groups on social media messaging platforms such as Telegram and Twitter, yet there was no move by security forces to prevent what one group called “the seizure of power by the people”.

 

Social media companies were criticised for not doing enough when supporters of former U.S. President Donald Trump invaded the U.S. Capitol two years ago.

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