Brazil election battle rages over Facebook's WhatsApp

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Facebook Inc’s WhatsApp messaging service became the frontline in Brazil’s bitter presidential campaign on Friday, as front-runner Jair Bolsonaro angrily denied accusations he had encouraged widespread disinformation campaigns on the platform.

On Thursday, newspaper Folha de S.Paulo had reported that supporters of the far-right candidate had funded mass messaging attacks against leftist rival Fernando Haddad.

Bolsonaro said in an online video that he had no knowledge of such activity and called on any supporters doing so to stop.

Brazil's right-wing presidential candidate for the Social Liberal Party (PSL) Jair Bolsonaro leaves Villa Militar, after casting his vote during general elections, in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, on October 7, 2018. /VCG Photo

The WhatsApp allegations have energized Haddad, who said his party has witnesses saying Bolsonaro asked business leaders for cash to pay for the bulk messaging, which he described as soliciting undeclared campaign contributions.

Haddad and his allies have urged an investigation and threatened a flurry of legal action, as the race that lawmaker Bolsonaro is expected to win by a landslide on October 28 reaches its final stretch.

Later on Friday, Brazil's top electoral court TSE approved opening a probe into the case.

The recriminations highlight the outsized political role of WhatsApp in the election in Brazil, where its more than 120 million users rival the reach of Facebook's main platform, in a country with a population of almost 210 million.

The messaging app allows groups of hundreds of users to exchange encrypted texts, photos and video out of the view of authorities or independent fact checkers, enabling the rapid spread of misinformation with no way to track its source or full reach.

The WhatsApp messaging application is seen on a phone screen, August 3, 2017. /VCG Photo

WhatsApp said on Friday it was "taking immediate legal action to stop companies from sending bulk messages," including cease and desist letters to the companies in question.

The day before, WhatsApp said it had banned hundreds of thousands of accounts during the election period, with spam detection technology spotting accounts engaged in automated "bot" behavior.

(Cover: Fernando Haddad, presidential candidate of Brazil's leftist Workers' Party, attends a rally in the downtown of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil October 19, 2018. /VCG Photo)

Source(s): Reuters