Facebook parent Meta and Google’s video platform YouTube said on Monday they were removing content supporting or praising the weekend ransacking of Brazilian government buildings by anti-democratic demonstrators.
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 a more than three hour uprising.
“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 took office on Jan. 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 taking to social media and messaging platforms from Twitter, Telegram and TikTok to 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.”
