Big Tech corporations in the United States are manipulating politics and meddling in the elections of countries all around the world.
In the lead-up to the first round of Brazil’s election this October, Meta censored left-wing President Lula da Silva, while simultaneously promoting the accounts of far-right, US-backed candidate Flávio Bolsonaro.
Bolsonaro has also contracted US companies to use AI technology to create fake accounts on social media and spread disinformation targeting critical voters.
This demonstrates how Silicon Valley is engaged in a kind of global digital imperialism.
US Big Tech oligarchs manipulate politics and censor critics
It is now widely acknowledged, even by mainstream media outlets and academic institutions, that the US government is an oligarchy, in which powerful billionaires control the political system.
Elon Musk, the richest man in history and first ever trillionaire, is spending hundreds of millions of dollars to try to buy US elections.
Musk was by far the largest donor in the 2024 election, plowing $288 million into putting Donald Trump and his Republican allies in power.
The world’s wealthiest oligarch has also spent at least $366 million to try to help the GOP win the 2026 midterm election.
Silicon Valley plutocrats are likewise using their control over social media platforms to silence dissent.
This October, TikTok suspended the account of the documentary Musk, directed by renowned filmmaker Alex Gibney, which criticized the eponymous plutocrat and documented his descent into extreme, far-right politics.
TikTok’s US algorithm is now run by Oracle, a Silicon Valley giant whose billionaire executive chairman Larry Ellison is a staunch right-wing Trump supporter.
The Trump administration forced TikTok’s Chinese parent company ByteDance to sell its US operations to conservative oligarchs.
The US government is also helping these plutocrats consolidate control over the media.
The Trump administration green-lighted the takeover of Warner Brothers by Paramount. The new conglomerate, called Skydance, is directed by David Ellison, the son of the Trump-allied billionaire.
Skydance now owns CNN, CBS, and HBO Max, along with dozens more media outlets, TV channels, and franchises.
Meta meddles in Brazil’s election
But it is not just the United States that is adversely impacted by these Big Tech oligarchs. They are also meddling in the politics of other countries.
Brazil is a case study of Silicon Valley’s digital imperialism.
Employees at Meta admitted in internal communications obtained by Brazilian journalists that, in the lead-up to Brazil’s elections this October, the US corporation censored the accounts of left-wing President Lula da Silva, doing significant damage to his campaign for re-election.
Meta owns Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, and Threads, among other apps and technologies.
Brazilian journalists have documented more than 1,080 pro-Lula and pro-Workers’ Party accounts that were censored by Meta in the months before the election.
Meta claimed that this censorship was not politically motivated, and was supposedly due to a technical error. However, this excuse is contradicted by the fact that the corporation did more than just silence Brazil’s president: it also promoted his political opponent.
Employees acknowledged that Meta simultaneously promoted the accounts of far-right presidential candidate Flávio Bolsonaro, who narrowly won the first round of the vote on 4 October, by less than 2 percentage points.
Nevertheless, Meta is not the only US corporation that has meddled in Brazil’s election.
The media outlet Intercept Brasil obtained internal records showing that Flávio Bolsonaro and his right-wing political party paid a US company to use AI technology to create false accounts on social media, spreading disinformation and targeting voters in critical areas.
Brazilian journalists have uncovered social media accounts on Meta platforms that have hundreds of thousands of followers that feature fake AI videos of scantily clad young women spreading pro-Bolsonaro and anti-Lula propaganda.
Brazil’s Bolsonaro dynasty vows to support US corporations, US dollar, and Israel
Flávio is a member of the far-right Bolsonaro political dynasty, and a close ally of Trump.
He and his brother Eduardo, a former Brazilian politician who now lives in the US, recently met with Trump at the White House.
Both are sons of Jair Bolsonaro, an ultra-conservative former military officer who served as Brazil’s avowedly pro-US president from 2019 to 2023.
Flávio has promised Washington that, if it helps him become president, he will refuse to regulate US Big Tech corporations and will support the US dollar-dominated financial system, cut off Brazil’s engagement with the South American trade bloc Mercosur, limit ties with China, reduce collaboration with BRICS, and strongly support Israel.
Bolsonaro supporters constantly hold rallies in Brazil in which they wave the flags of the United States and Israel.
This October, Bolsonaro fans attended a rally with a giant inflatable missile that stated, in English, “Trump, nuke Brazil!”
Lula, on the other hand, is an independent leftist. As Brazil’s president, he has regulated US Big Tech corporations, which has angered Silicon Valley.
Lula has also long pursued a non-aligned foreign policy. He was one of the co-founders of BRICS and is a strong advocate of Global South unity, promoting Latin American integration.
Lula has openly challenged the global dominance of the US dollar. He has even proposed that BRICS should create a new international currency, as a neutral reserve asset, to circumvent the dollar and Washington’s unilateral sanctions and asset seizures.
Trump has repeatedly threatened BRICS. He vowed to hit BRICS countries with 100% tariffs if they oppose US dollar hegemony.
In 2025, Trump imposed 50% tariffs on Brazil. The US leader admitted that these measures were politically motivated, aimed at supporting his far-right ally Jair Bolsonaro, the former president.
Jair Bolsonaro was sentenced to 27 years in prison after he tried to organize a failed military coup. Bolsonaro lost the 2022 election to Lula, but refused to accept the results.
Brazilian police reports documented how Bolsonaro worked with military officers in the failed coup attempt. They even made plans to assassinate Lula.
Lula warned that, by meddling in his country, the US government is trying to “colonize” Brazil, in order to exploit the country’s massive reserves of natural resources.
Don't they do this everywhere?