| ▲ | Meta employees say Lula’s accounts restricted in Brazil election: Report(aljazeera.com) |
| 140 points by nidnogg 5 hours ago | 54 comments |
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| ▲ | ceroxylon an hour ago | parent | next [-] |
| There is a lot of money involved in getting Bolsonaro back in power: > Brazil’s government announced Friday that annual deforestation in the Amazon fell to its lowest level since records began in 1988 [. . .] During Jair Bolsonaro’s presidency, from 2019 to 2022, Amazon deforestation surged by about 60% [0] This highlights the greatest difference between these two candidates (imo), one wants to preserve the 'lungs of the Earth', the other wants to rip them out for profit and give the world a middle finger on their way out. [0] https://apnews.com/article/brazil-amazon-deforestation-lula-... |
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| ▲ | privacyishuman an hour ago | parent | next [-] | | Well that sucks then: https://polymarket.com/event/brazil-presidential-election 80% chance Bolsonaro wins. | | | |
| ▲ | krystalgamer 38 minutes ago | parent | prev [-] | | brazilians are extremely poor, even with the programmes that try to masquerade the numbers. why would they care about the amazon if they barely have any money? climate pov is a first world luxury. no one serious about this election would even attempt to make. | | |
| ▲ | nextaccountic 18 minutes ago | parent | next [-] | | Because the rain in most of Brazil depend on the Amazon. If the forest is gone, we will have desertification in the most populous regions of Brazil. The southeast is already facing droughts periodically, and it will get worse with more deforestation. With less rain we will produce less food, which means not only that food will become more expensive in Brazil (and a lot of people will face hunger), but we also depend on the agricultural output to avoid a trade deficit. Less rain means less food exports which means less dollars getting into Brazil, which will, among other things, turn Brazil into a hotter Argentine. https://piaui.uol.com.br/web/six-conclusions-about-model-of-... No seriously. There's a flying river, kilometers high in the sky, that goes from the Amazon to various Brazilian regions. It transports more water than the Amazon river itself (which is already the river with the highest discharge of the world). The water source is transpiration from Amazonian trees. Without the trees, the flying river is gone https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flying_river | | |
| ▲ | matheusmoreira 4 minutes ago | parent [-] | | > Less rain means less food exports which means less dollars getting into Brazil Why not industrialize instead of exporting soy and meat until the end of time? | | |
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| ▲ | matheusmoreira 33 minutes ago | parent | prev [-] | | If I had a button that would burn that entire jungle down and replace it with a top tier national semiconductor industry, I'd press it twice. Only university leftists care about the Amazon to the point they sacrifice national interests for it. Completely disconnected from reality. > Europe is not worried about the trees in the Amazon, they want the subsoil. Dr. Enéas Carneiro. It's all about the rare earths. | | |
| ▲ | dachris 4 minutes ago | parent [-] | | Seems like a false dichotomy, don't see how sacrificing jungle would get Brazil a top-tier semiconductor industry. And I guess the native peoples living in the Amazon are not university leftists. I'm not into Brazilian politics, the little I know seems to indicate that it's a choice between a rock and a hard place (both seem to have corruption allegations). The objective aspect I can judge is whom Trump strongly supports. US influence in South America is a pretty bloody chapter in history. |
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| ▲ | roenxi 2 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-] |
| It is somewhat confusing to me that more countries don't treat Meta as a political threat. China's approach to restricting access to western internet companies looks more and more reasonable in hindsight. The US tech giants appear to be politically active and becoming more and more willing to influence elections. I don't like the strategic situation of any anti-US political parties with Facebook in the mix (not a comment on Lula, about whos policies I know little). That being said, it is a complex issue. There are countries that refuse to embrace US style free speech and so there is a natural pressure to move political speech to US-controlled media platforms as a result. The average quality of the chatter is higher. |
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| ▲ | nidnogg 5 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-] |
| It’s sad but it’s real and it’s happening. In Brazilian news, this is actively being exploded upon and it is not reaching mainstream media properly. [1] - https://www.instagram.com/reel/De2BfVRD30o [2] - https://www.aljazeera.com/economy/2026/10/16/meta-employees-... |
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| ▲ | matheusmoreira an hour ago | parent [-] | | I wouldn't attribute an eventual Lula defeat to this, however. His 3rd term was terrible, dozens of new taxes were implemented, living costs rose, purchasing power declined, and it became obvious that he was governing through the supreme court. His campaign was overconfident and taken completely off guard when they got utterly eviscerated in the 1st round of elections earlier this month. Left wing desperation was palpable. Partidarian judges and journalists did everything they could to help Lula, but after the presidential debates on live television, it's pretty much over. There's just no way this guy is even fit to lead the nation ever again. | | |
| ▲ | saulapremium an hour ago | parent [-] | | Funny, that sounds exactly like what an American right-winger would say about Biden in 2024. I guess Brazil is about to experience a shit-show similar to what the US is going through now, then. Not much hope left anywhere. | | |
| ▲ | matheusmoreira 39 minutes ago | parent [-] | | Lula went on national television and said he's going to end police in reply to Bolsonaro vowing to classify the drug traffickers as narcoterrorists. It's not even a lie. These leftists do want to abolish the police and create a bolivarian national guard or whatever. He says this despite the fact organized drug gangs have been known to wage literal drone warfare in Rio de Janeiro. I'm not even kidding. https://www.cnnbrasil.com.br/nacional/sudeste/rj/operacao-no... I seriously doubt he's going to recover from this. | | |
| ▲ | saulapremium 22 minutes ago | parent [-] | | >Lula went on national television and said he's going to end police in reply to Bolsonaro vowing to classify the drug traffickers as narcoterrorists. Without knowing much about Brazilian politics, all I can say is that I strongly doubt this. And at least a quick Google AI question suggests that your statement is not just off but completely false. | | |
| ▲ | ieatcandlewax 3 minutes ago | parent | next [-] | | When I did a quick search in brave it agreed with the statement:
"Yes, during a televised debate on October 23, 2026, President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva stated that his government would "end the police" if reelected. The comment occurred while he was discussing the approval of the PEC da Segurança (Security Public Amendment) and the creation of a new Ministry of Public Security. " I tried google and he did in fact say it:
"During the TV Globo presidential debate on October 23, 2026, Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva stated: "Aprovada a PEC da Segurança eu vou criar o Ministério e ai você vai ver o que é um governo acabar, sabe, com a polícia e deixar o território livre"" Although google says that he might have been being sarcastic, and gave some additional defenses. I googled "Did Lula say he was going to end police recently?" and got these responses. Im surprised that you got such a different result in such a short time frame, especially the "completely false" thing, as it's not far off the direct quote. What did you google? | |
| ▲ | bel8 a few seconds ago | parent | prev | next [-] | | You can doubt all you want. It's on the record. It was said in national television. | |
| ▲ | matheusmoreira 17 minutes ago | parent | prev [-] | | He literally said those words. I heard them. Whole nation heard them. I saved a video of it. Most charitable interpretation possible is he's too senile and doesn't know what he's saying anymore. Not a good look either way. He also closed the 1st presidential debate by saying that if he won, Brazil would end. Just another one of those moments. |
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| ▲ | goshx 3 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-] |
| At the same time, some candidates from the opposition are getting more views than Beyoncé and other artists known globally. https://sleepinggiantsbrasil.com/biblioteca/visualizacoes-de... (portuguese) |
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| ▲ | Terr_ 3 hours ago | parent | next [-] | | To save others a couple clicks: > [Auto-Translated] The Sleeping Giants Brazil report analyzes 300 Reels of 30 Instagram profiles to investigate evidence of algorithmic favoring to federal deputy Nikolas Ferreira (PL-MG). Its ten videos totaled 410.5 million views, nearly three times the total of the 90 videos of the other nine MPs analyzed. In views by follower, its performance was 17.2 times the typical value of these deputies, 29.3 times that of the largest Brazilian profiles and 33.7 times that of the largest profiles in the world. His average viewing was behind only Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi, surpassing celebrities such as Selena Gomez, Beyoncé and Justin Bieber. The study documents a persistent disparity that requires more transparency from the Meta, although public data does not allow it to determine its causes. | |
| ▲ | nidnogg 3 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-] | | Both sides are pulling record levels of engagement. It's a colosseum out there. But yes, one of the sides is more automated as usual. Most of the left engagement is human driven. | |
| ▲ | Jensson 2 hours ago | parent | prev [-] | | Looks at least partially organic to me, the guy is very cute and looking at his youtube video it is full of female commenters and has 2.7m subscribers. So he is a celebrity and not just a politician, probably a lot of women are in love with him. |
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| ▲ | Kapura 3 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-] |
| meta employees will look at this and think that their job isn't political. what a j o k e. |
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| ▲ | N_Lens 11 minutes ago | parent [-] | | More people should be aware of the Buddhist precept of “right livelihood”. |
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| ▲ | msandford 3 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-] |
| At a certain point the big social media companies are going to have to publish their algorithms and/or let you choose your own re: friends updates, friends of friends, things your friends or friends of friends liked, etc. Make your algorithm too opaque and you run the risk of outrage engagement showing up as "the platform pushed this" whatwver that happens to be. |
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| ▲ | _ink_ 6 minutes ago | parent | next [-] | | I would go further and make them liable for what they show. Sure it's user created content. But the feed is entirely curated by them. They decide what to show and what not and they should be liable as such. | |
| ▲ | thoughtpeddler 13 minutes ago | parent | prev | next [-] | | The US government is not a fan of other sovereign nations (even Western-aligned ones) from gaining "algorithmic sovereignty", as was seen when Australia tried to do so recently and received a stern threat from the US State Department. | |
| ▲ | matheusmoreira an hour ago | parent | prev | next [-] | | X did publish their algorithms. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49310291 They set the standard in transparency. | |
| ▲ | Vaushite 2 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-] | | I don't think anything will force them to do this. Can you elaborate on why you think they'll be forced to do this? | |
| ▲ | verdverm an hour ago | parent | prev [-] | | Algorithms are something we should definitely regulate, as a generalization of social media and Ai decisions over human lives. I'd like to see something like ATProtocol feeds forced upon these companies, anyone can create any kind of feed, it works in all clients. |
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| ▲ | nidnogg 33 minutes ago | parent | prev | next [-] |
| If anything, many in Brazil feel a social media decline or stagnation. Orkut was poised to restart here and was met with great anticipation. Good market to new novel social media ideas. Somehow something like Baidu web doesn’t seem too bad now. Brazil could use some sovereign tech. |
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| ▲ | gnabgib 5 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-] |
| Title: Meta employees say Lula’s accounts restricted in Brazil election: Report > don't editorialize. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html |
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| ▲ | silverFork 4 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-] |
| Did you expect more from FaceBook? |
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| ▲ | moribvndvs 3 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-] |
| It’s just a technical issue that seems to magically and repeatedly happen in favor of right wing interests. Crazy how that just works out some times. |
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| ▲ | matheusmoreira an hour ago | parent | next [-] | | The Brazilian left has done much worse than whatever it is that Meta is doing. > We have defeated Bolsonarism! Luís Roberto Barroso, former Brazilian Supreme Court Justice. | |
| ▲ | EdwardDiego 2 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-] | | Whoopsie! A slight technical error that aligns with the politics of the White House, it's wild how that happens from time to time to time to time... | | |
| ▲ | Vaushite 2 hours ago | parent [-] | | It's not the white house, it is always the right wing. When the white house is left wing Facebook is still right wing. | | |
| ▲ | N_Lens 10 minutes ago | parent [-] | | Because capital is right wing and capital will act to preserve and concentrate power. |
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| ▲ | derektank 2 hours ago | parent | prev [-] | | Facebook has also made content decisions that have hurt right wing interests in the past, such as in 2020 when they banned several accounts affiliated with Bolsonaro https://www.reuters.com/article/world/facebook-suspends-disi... |
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| ▲ | platevoltage 3 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-] |
| I hope to see Mark dragged in front of congress every day of his life next year. |
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| ▲ | mindslight 9 minutes ago | parent | next [-] | | No, the last thing US Democrats need is to squander their time on endless questioning. Some of that is going to be inevitable for impeachment and conviction of course, which are most certainly necessary for traitor Grump and his Supreme Council justifiers as well. But as for this issue? Strike the root, don't get bogged down in endless bickering about how power was probably abused. Rather, put an end to the capabilities being available to abuse to begin with. Imagine a US GDPR, along with anti-trust legislation/enforcement that un-ties Faceboot-the-app from Faceboot-the-hosting-service, mandating open APIs that facilitate vibrant competition in both markets. | |
| ▲ | oefrha 2 hours ago | parent | prev [-] | | For flexing muscles and advancing U.S. foreign policy goals abroad? Doubt it. |
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| ▲ | SwellJoe an hour ago | parent | prev | next [-] |
| "Any suggestion that Meta favors one side is false" Weird how it keeps happening (e.g. just last week, Instagram and the No Kings account), and it's always to the benefit of right-wing extremists. I'm sure it's just an accident, though, surely they wouldn't lie on the internet. |
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| ▲ | ChrisArchitect 5 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-] |
| Previously: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50122713 |
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| ▲ | barbazoo 2 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-] |
| I only use FB occasionally for marketplace with an empty account. All that it's ever suggesting in the home feed is hateful, right-wing content. Never anything positive. It's so sad that that's what drives the metrics these people care about. If this is your job, shame on you! |
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| ▲ | matheusmoreira an hour ago | parent | prev | next [-] |
| Don't be fooled. Whatever it is that Meta is doing, it's only a fraction of what Lula, his party and his supreme court ministers did to the Brazilian right wing. Censorship was the least of it. I'm not even denying that it's happening. I'm just saying I don't care. |
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| ▲ | d--b 2 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-] |
| Is this a Trump thing? Like is the motivation to please Trump and ask for stuff/be left alone? Or is Zuckerberg really gone full right wing globally? |
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| ▲ | rf15 2 hours ago | parent | next [-] | | No, it's the lawnmower analogy again: Zuckerberg has no political views, he just thinks that Trump will restrict him less/allow him to make more money/is easier to exploit. | |
| ▲ | nidnogg an hour ago | parent | prev | next [-] | | It would absolutely strike me as a Trump thing, yes. We have a habit of mirroring the US, and it shows | |
| ▲ | Vaushite 2 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-] | | Facebook always aligns with the right wing no matter if the white house is left wing or right wing. | |
| ▲ | matheusmoreira an hour ago | parent | prev [-] | | Possibly. All things point to Bolsonaro's son winning the election today. He's a Trump ally. If the Brazilian right wins, then it will mean that not a single left wing party has won an election in South America since the end of USAID. |
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| ▲ | RockRobotRock 3 hours ago | parent | prev [-] |
| damned if you do, damned if you don't |
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| ▲ | gchamonlive an hour ago | parent [-] | | By which frame of comparison do you say they were ever "damned even though they didn't"? |
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