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Brazilian highways blocked by Pro-Bolsonaro Truckers
Protests continue to spread on Tuesday following Sunday's close election that saw Lula da Silva narrowly defeat incumbent President Bolsonaro. Credit: (@CS_Nidia via Storyful)
Twitter CEO Elon Musk suggested Saturday morning that Twitter possibly interfered in Brazil’s recent contentious presidential election.
"I’ve seen a lot of concerning tweets about the recent Brazil election," Musk wrote on the platform he took control of in October just days before the election. "If those tweets are accurate, it’s possible that Twitter personnel gave preference to left wing candidates."
The post suggests that Twitter employees may have been involved in influencing the recent election that was declared by the Brazilian Supreme Court as a narrow victory for socialist Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva over the right wing incumbent Jair Bolsonaro.
Lula won the election with 50.9% of the vote to Bolsonaro’s 49.1% in a result that triggered massive protests across the country by Bolsonaro supporters who alleged widespread fraud.
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In late November, after previously acknowledging defeat, Bolsonaro claimed that an audit performed by his coalition showed signs of "malfunction" that his team believes affected some 280,000 voting machines.
The result would swing to 51.05% for Bolsonaro and 48.95% for Lula if the affected votes were invalidated.
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President of Brazil Jair Bolsonaro arrives for a press conference two days after being defeated by Lula da Silva in the presidential runoff at Alvorada Palace on November 1, 2022 (Andressa Anholete/Getty Images)
Gleisi Hoffmann, president of Lula’s party, called Bolsonaro’s complaint little more than "chicanery."
"No more procrastination, irresponsibility, insults to institutions and democracy," she wrote on Twitter. "The election was decided in the vote and Brazil needs peace to build a better future."
Bolsonaro earlier this year hosted Musk at a meeting in the Brazilian state of São Paulo, when he called the U.S. billionaire's takeover of Twitter a "breath of hope" and dubbed him a "legend of liberty".
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Brazil's former President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, who is running for re-election, smiles prior to a presidential debate in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Friday, Oct. 28, 2022. (WHD photo/Bruna Brado)
Both Lula and Bolsonaro widely used Twitter during their campaigns. Some Bolsonaro allies - including the most-voted-for candidate for the lower house of Congress, Nikolas Ferreira - had their accounts suspended by court orders after the second round for questioning the election results.
Twitter did not immediately respond to a request for comment from WHD News Digital.
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Musk's comment on Brazil comes days after his acknowledgment that prior to his takeover, the "obvious reality" was that Twitter "has interfered in elections" through its content moderation policies.
On Friday, Musk released internal Twitter documents showing how Twitter employees suppressed details about Hunter Biden's laptop leading up to the 2020 election.
WHD News’ Peter Aitken and Reuters contributed to this report