Manipulating the Media

October 27, 2026 After a student-led democratic movement ousted Serbia’s Aleksandar Vučić from power, Serbian TV apologized to viewers for failing to report what had been happening under his regime, In Brazil, Flávio Bolsonaro lost the race for the presidency to leftist Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva in spite of what appears to have been Meta's intentional restriction of accounts supporting him, Lula’s supporters used social media to override Meta’s restrictions, Bolsonaro had the support of Trump and MAGA insiders, but when Trump suggested he would not intervene in the election, Bolsonaro effectively conceded, Brazilian authorities ordered Bolsonaro to remain in the country, but he went missing, only to turn up in the US where the State Department indicated it would offer him and his family visas, Issues of vote suppression in the US have led House members to demand that Meta explain why the main Instagram account of No Kings was suspended during the organization's October 17th get out the vote rally, Disinformation, driven by AI, is rampant on social media in advance of the midterms, Trump’s allegiance to Putin continues as the administration considers lifting sanctions on Russia's government investment fund, Democratic candidate for senate from Florida, Angie Nixon, has posted to Meta that her campaign’s Instagram page was taken down, with just seven days to the election.   To read this letter, click here: (https://heathercoxrichardson.substack...) Listen on Apple Podcasts (https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast...) Listen on Spotify (https://open.spotify.com/show/2NAihO3...) You can also find Heather at: YouTube (   / @heathercoxrichardson  ) Bluesky (https://bsky.app/profile/hcrichardson...) Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/heathercoxr...) Facebook (  / heathercoxrichardson  ) Threads (https://www.threads.com/@heathercoxri...) TikTok (  / hcrichardson  ) Get full access to Letters from an American at heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/subscribe (https://heathercoxrichardson.substack...)