On Monday, Facebook’s parent company Meta and Google’s video platform YouTube announced that they would remove content that supported or praised the weekend ransacking of Brazilian government buildings by anti-democratic protesters.
In a three-hour attack, 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 Supreme Court rooms.
“We designated Brazil as a temporary high-risk location in advance of the election 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 that any content that supports or praises these actions will be removed,” he added. “We are monitoring the situation closely and will continue to remove content that violates our policies.”
Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, a leftist, took office on January 1 after defeating Bolsonaro in a runoff election in October, bringing an end to Brazil’s most right-wing government in decades.
Bolsonaro refused to concede defeat, and some supporters claimed the election was rigged, with people organizing protests on social media and messaging platforms ranging from Twitter, Telegram, and TikTok to YouTube and Facebook.
A YouTube spokesperson told Reuters that the video-sharing platform was “closely monitoring” the situation in Brazil, where social media platforms were ordered to block users suspected of supporting the attack.
“Our Trust and Safety team is removing content that violates our Community Guidelines, such as live streams and violent videos,” a spokesperson said.
“Furthermore, authoritative content is prominently displayed on our homepage, at the top of search results, and in recommendations. We will remain vigilant as the situation develops.”
‘PROACTIVE SUPERVISION’
According to a Telegram representative, the private messaging app is collaborating with the Brazilian government and fact-checking organizations to prevent the spread of violent content.
“Telegram is a platform that promotes free speech and peaceful protest. Calls to violence, on the other hand, are expressly prohibited on our platform “According to a spokesperson.
“In order to remove such content, our moderators use a combination of proactive monitoring in public-facing parts of our platform as well as accepting user reports.”
TikTok and Twitter did not respond immediately to requests for comment.
According to a source familiar with the situation, Twitter’s Brazil staff was severely reduced in layoffs following Elon Musk’s takeover in October, including eight employees who oversaw trending topics and helped add context to tweets labeled as misinformation.
Messages seen by Reuters this week showed members of such groups organizing meeting points in cities across the country from which chartered buses would depart for Brasilia, with the intention of occupying public buildings.
When supporters of former US President Donald Trump stormed the US Capitol two years ago, social media companies were chastised for not doing enough. Platforms such as Facebook and Alphabet’s YouTube have stated that they are working to remove misleading election and voting information.