Representatives of major tech companies — including Meta, Google, Facebook and X — skipped a public hearing focused on disinformation on social media hosted Wednesday by the government of Brazil.
The session organized by Brazil's attorney general came as the government is locked in conflict with Meta over its weakening of controls regarding disinformation on its Instagram and Facebook platforms.
The snub also followed a decision last year by Brazil's Supreme Court to block Elon Musk's X platform for 40 days for failing to comply with a series of court orders against online disinformation.
Brazil's Attorney General Jorge Messias said the companies "were invited but did not participate," in the hearing.
"That is their choice and we respect it," he said.
Other companies like LinkedIn and Discord were also invited, but didn’t attend.
The meeting centred on concerns about hate speech and disinformation, with a particular focus on Meta's decision to end its independent fact-checking program in the United States.
A spokesperson for the civil society group Reporters Without Borders charged that Meta was "prioritizing ideological interests over public debate based on facts."
Meta boss Mark Zuckerberg's decision to scrap US fact-checking was widely seen as an attempt to appease President Donald Trump, whose conservative support base has long complained that fact-checking on tech platforms was a way to curtail free speech and censor right-wing content.
X's Musk is a key Trump advisor.
Brazil, which has a population of over 200 million people, is one of several countries deeply concerned over Meta's decision to weaken checks on disinformation.
The company assured last week that the independent fact-checking program will continue working outside of the US “for the moment.”
The International Fact-Checking Network has warned of devastating consequences if Meta broadens its policy shift beyond US borders to the company's programs covering more than 100 countries.
AFP currently works in 26 languages with Facebook's fact-checking program, including in the United States and the European Union.
— AFP/Times
