00:00Has Meta interfered in the Hungarian elections?
00:06A social media campaign alleging Meta is interfering in Hungary's elections,
00:11scheduled for 12 April, has surfaced in recent weeks.
00:14The vote pits pro-European Peter Magyar, head of the TISA opposition party,
00:19against longtime EU critic Prime Minister Viktor Orban.
00:22In this ex-post, Lebanese-Australian political commentator Mario Nafol
00:27claimed Facebook restricted Orban's post after a TISA party member and former Meta employee
00:33urged supporters to mass-report his content.
00:36These claims were picked up by the Fidesz-aligned Mandana newspaper,
00:40which identified the opposition politician in question as MEP Dora David,
00:44a former legal advisor to Meta.
00:47In reality, these allegations take some of her past claims out of context.
00:51For instance, in this video posted in November 2025,
00:54David denied manipulating Meta's algorithm and encouraged followers
00:58to report false and hateful Fidesz posts.
01:01While it's forbidden to manipulate Meta's algorithm to target a political opponent's campaign,
01:06users can flag content that violates community standards.
01:09So David's call for users to flag harmful content does not breach the guidelines.
01:14In fact, this falls in line with Europe's Digital Services Act,
01:17which urges social media companies to mitigate the spread of disinformation and harmful content.
01:22In another ex-post, conservative political commentator Philip Pilkington,
01:26who is linked to Orban-affiliated think tanks,
01:28accused Meta employee Oskar Brzezinski of suppressing Orban's social media.
01:33Now, Pilkington declined to provide further details,
01:35stating that his claim was based on information from a senior government source in Budapest.
01:40We found no evidence of Meta targeting or censoring Fidesz or Orban.
01:44While Meta didn't answer our questions over the allegations concerning Brzezinski and David,
01:49a spokesperson confirmed that there are no restrictions on Orban's accounts
01:53and that no posts have been removed.
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