News - World: Human rights groups and researchers have raised the alarm about the failure of social media platforms in Brazil to tackle the spread of disinformation ahead of the Latin American country’s highly polarized presidential election on October 30.

"Social media platforms are failing Brazil's voters," said Deborah Brown, a senior researcher on digital rights at Human Rights Watch, who called the platforms and messaging apps "extremely important" spaces for electoral debate.

"That space has been riddled with electoral disinformation, such as baseless allegations of electoral fraud," she said.

Jon Lloyd, senior advisor at UK-based Global Witness, said the platforms have "many correct policies" in place to combat disinformation but "the enforcement is really lacking."

"They're not actually following through on what their policies say and that's a big concern," he said.

Bolsonaro, who is narrowly trailing Lula in recent opinion polls, has on numerous occasions criticized the country's electronic voting machines for allegedly being vulnerable to fraud, without providing evidence.

Philip Friedrich, a senior research analyst for technology and elections at US-based Freedom House, said online disinformation has intensified since Brazil's first round of voting on October 2.

"Social media companies bear some responsibility for the country being on tenterhooks about this year's election," Friedrich said. "While major social media companies like Twitter and Meta released statements about their preparations before the first round of voting, we've seen few updates about how they are responding to shifts in disinformation."

Source: Press TV