Global Witness Accuses Facebook Of Allowing Online Ads About Violence On Its Platform

Supporter of former Brazil's far-right President Jair Bolsonaro is disappointed by the defeat in the election. (photo: Twitter @jairbolsonaro)

JAKARTA- According to a report from Global Witness that appeared recently, Facebook approved a series of online advertisements promoting violence in Brazil. It comes days after protesters ransacked government buildings in the country.

Earlier this month, thousands of supporters of Brazil's far-right former President Jair Bolsonaro stormed the nation's congress, the supreme court, and the presidential palace in an attack that lasted more than three hours.

In an effort to stem the flow of posts inciting violence online, Facebook's parent company Meta said it had designated Brazil a "temporary high-risk location" and removed content calling for people to take up arms or attack government buildings by force.

In the wake of anti-democratic riots in #Brazil 🇧🇷, we tested how well @YouTube & @facebook enforced their policies by submitting ads containing death threats and election disinformation.

YouTube suspended our account.

Facebook approved almost every ad.https://t.co/MMBiGGLqTI

— Global Witness (@Global_Witness) January 19, 2023

However, four days after the uprising, human rights organization Global Witness found that Facebook was still allowing death threats and other violent calls to ads on its platform.

Using fake accounts, the group submitted 16 fake advertisements to run on the platform, 14 of which were approved by Facebook for publication.

Among the approved advertisements were messages which read, in Portuguese: "We need to dig up all the rats who have seized power and shoot them", "We need a military revolution to restore the rule of law", and "Die the children of the Elector of Lula". .

Left-wing President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva took office on January 1 after defeating Bolsonaro in a run-off election in October 2022. Bolsonaro refuses to concede that narrow defeat, and some supporters claim the election was rigged.

Global Witness also submitted an ad for approval on YouTube, but the video-sharing platform immediately suspended the group's account. Global Witness said it pulled the ad from Facebook before other users could see it.

“After the violence in Brasilia, Facebook said they were 'actively monitoring' the situation and removing content that violated their policies. This test shows how poor their ability to enforce what they say is," said Rosie Sharpe, digital threat campaigner at Global Witness. "The much stronger YouTube response suggests that the test we've set can probably be passed."

Meta spokesman Mitch Henderson said the small sample of ads shown by Global Witness was not representative of how the company was enforcing its policies at scale.

"As we've said before, ahead of last year's elections in Brazil, we removed hundreds of thousands of content that violated our policies against violence and incitement and rejected tens of thousands of ad submissions before they went live," he said.

“We use technology and teams to help keep our platform safe from abuse and we are constantly refining our processes to enforce our policies at scale,” said Henderson.