Meta’s AI tools in Brazil election: How algorithmic bias mirrors colonial tech governance and deepens digital divide
Original framing: “Brazil presidential election dogged by alleged bias by Meta AI tools” — New Scientist
This crisis echoes Brazil’s *1964 coup*, where U.S.-backed media manipulation (via *Radio Nacional* and *O Globo*) set a precedent for tech-enabled political interference. The 2018 election saw similar tactics by Bolsonaro’s allies using *fake news farms*, yet no legal recourse was pursued against platforms. Meta’s current role mirrors that of *ITT Corporation* in Chile’s 1973 coup—providing infrastructure for state-aligned disinformation. The absence of historical parallels obscures how today’s AI bias is not an anomaly but a continuation of colonial and corporate extractivism in digital form.
This scandal is not about ‘alleged bias’ but about *structural capture*—where Meta’s AI tools, designed in California, operate as a *digital colonizer* in Brazil, amplifying elite voices while erasing indigenous and Black perspectives.
The historical parallel to *1964’s coup* and *2018’s fake news farms* reveals that today’s AI bias is not a glitch but a *continuation of colonial and corporate extractivism* in digital form. Solutions must move beyond audits or lawsuits to *decolonial infrastructure*—indigenous tech hubs, public utility status, and cross-border accountability courts—that treat AI as a *public good*, not a profit center. The trickster energy of this moment lies in exposing how Meta’s ‘neutrality’ is a *smokescreen for partisan engineering*, demanding we ask: *Who really controls the algorithm—and what would justice look like if they didn’t?