Nearly a decade ago, when Facebook admitted that its platform was used to incite genocidal violence in Myanmar, some may have been inclined to accept the company’s defense that it had been unwittingly used as a tool to benefit authoritarian regimes.

Ten years and numerous scandals later, some people may be less willing to give the benefit of the doubt to the company, which has repeatedly bowed to President Donald Trump and whose platforms have spread hate speech and far-right propaganda. Meta, Facebook’s parent company, appears to be censoring some left-leaning users, as conservatives have baselessly accused the company in years past of targeting them.

Meta faced widespread condemnation over the weekend for freezing the primary Instagram account organizers used to promote the anti-Trump “No Kings” demonstrations that took place on Saturday. The account was down “several hours,” according to the activist group. Meta, which also owns Instagram, apologized and said that ”automated action” triggers such suspensions after “accounts post, share or comment at very high frequencies.”

Nonprofit watchdog group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington said it filed a records request on Monday “for any communications between Meta and [the Department of Homeland Security] concerning the No Kings movement, protests or Meta social accounts.”

“The public deserves to know whether the Trump admin is coordinating with Meta to suppress or censor No Kings accounts,” the group, known as CREW, wrote on X.

Meta’s apology for restricting “No Kings” posts is hard to accept at face value when Meta is simultaneously facing allegations of undermining Trump critics elsewhere.

My Oct. 1 post about MAGA world’s efforts to sway Brazil’s presidential election in favor of Trump-aligned Flávio Bolsonaro referred to accusations about Meta undermining incumbent president — and Trump critic — Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva’s campaign. The accusations I cited centered on Meta temporarily suspending an Instagram account that had promoted a viral video linking Bolsonaro to corruption, and another incident in which the company temporarily disabled Lula’s ability to run political ads from his campaign Facebook page. Meta has apparently restored capabilities for both accounts. In the case of the account that hosted the viral video, the company claimed it was restored after an “internal review” and went on to “apologize for the inconvenience.” Meta denied meddling in the election, saying in a statement, “Any suggestion that Meta favors one side is false.” But the scrutiny continues.

On Monday, Brazil’s top electoral court gave Meta 24 hours to prove that it’s treating Lula’s and Bolsonaro’s campaigns equally. As The Associated Press explained, Meta has said the issues involving Lula’s accounts “stemmed from unrelated global technical glitches, strict anti-fraud measures, and regulatory compliance rather than targeted suppression.”

Presently, we’re seeing some of the top social media platforms in the world being used to protect powerful MAGA oligarchs and undermine their perceived enemies. Elon Musk’s X is a cesspool of racist propaganda and right-wing disinformation. And TikTok, partly owned by longtime Trump ally Larry Ellison, recently reversed its suspension of an account that had been promoting a documentary critical of Musk. And whether it’s enabling the Trump regime’s free speech crackdown on critics of Immigration and Customs Enforcement or boosting Bolsonaro’s electoral chances, Meta has been used to quiet some opposition to the MAGA movement on its platforms.

Trump is suffering from historic unpopularity. And no one seems more desperate to reverse that trend than his allies in Big Tech.

This story has been updated with additional information.

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