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Facebook fights order to globally block accounts linked to Brazilian election meddling

The tech giant is simultaneously complying with the block order beginning Saturday after it was fined by a Supreme Court judge for non-compliance citing the risk of criminal liability for a local employee were it not to do so.

Facebook complied with the order of blocking these accounts in Brazil by restricting the ability for the target Pages and Profiles to be seen from IP locations in Brazil.

People from IP locations in Brazil were not capable of seeing these Pages and Profiles even if the targets had changed their IP location.
This new legal order is extreme, posing a threat to freedom of expression outside of Brazils jurisdiction and conflicting with laws and jurisdictions worldwide.

Before the fine was announced Facebook had said it would appeal the global block order, adding that while it respects the laws of countries where it operates Brazilian law recognizes the limits of its jurisdiction.

Last month the news agency reported Facebook had suspended a network of social media accounts used to spread divisive political messages online which the company had linked to employees of Bolsonaro and two of his sons.

In all Facebook said it removed 33 Facebook accounts, 14 Pages, 1 Group and 37 Instagram accounts that it identified as involved in the coordinated inauthentic behavior.

It also disclosed that around 883,000 accounts followed one or more of the offending Pages; while the Group had around 350 accounts signed up; and 918,000 people followed one or more of the Instagram accounts.

Facebook said it had identified a network of clusters of connected activity, with those involved using duplicate and fake accounts to evade enforcement, create fictitious personas posing as reporters, post content, and manage Pages masquerading as news outlets.

But the company has at times treated political speech as somehow exempt from its usual content standards leading to operating policies that tie themselves in contradictory nots.

Original article
Author: Natasha Lomas

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