Facebook has announced the shutdown of 68 pages and 43 accounts run by a Brazilian marketing group contracted by right-wing candidate and frontrunner Jair Bolsonaro for violating its misrepresentation and spam policies. Facebook underscored that the decision was driven by “the behavior of these actors…rather than on the type of content they were posting.” The statement described the problem in Brazil, writing that “spammers have used politically sensationalist content more and more – regardless of ideology – to build an audience and direct traffic to their websites outside Facebook, making money each time a person visits these websites.” The Bolsonaro campaign has already come under scrutiny and is currently under investigation for alleged illegal campaign financing through social media.
Source: Facebook shuts accounts of marketing group in Brazil election | Reuters
