Pro-Orbán actors accuse Meta of interference in Hungarian elections, despite lack of evidence | Euronews

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By&nbsp Estelle Nilsson-Julien Published on 06/04/2026 - 11:42 GMT+2 Share Comments Share Facebook Twitter Flipboard Send Reddit Linkedin Messenger Telegram VK Bluesky Threads Whatsapp Copy/paste the article video embed link below: Copied Meta has found itself embroiled in Hungary's tense election campaign, after supporters of the ruling Fidesz party claimed their posts are being restricted to favour opposition parties. Social media accounts backing Hungary's ruling right-wing populist party Fidesz have accused tech giant Meta of political interference in the country's upcoming elections, alleging that the party and Prime Minister Viktor Orbán are being censored. Claims of interference The claims emerged in an X post shared by Lebanese-Australian political commentator Mario Nawfal, who tends to align with populist leanings. "EXCLUSIVE BREAKING: FACEBOOK RESTRICTS ORBÁN POSTS WEEKS BEFORE HUNGARY’S ELECTION," he said on 18 March. Nawfal — who interviewed Orbán seven days later — alleged that ahead of the "crucial" elections on 12 April, Facebook was "reportedly restricting posts from the country's Prime Minister." He suggested that this was sparked by a call from a member of the opposition Tisza Party — the pro-European conservative political party, led by former Fidesz party member Péter Magyar — who allegedly urged "supporters to mass-report" Orbán's content.

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By&nbsp
Estelle Nilsson-Julien
Published on
06/04/2026 - 11:42 GMT+2
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Meta has found itself embroiled in Hungary's tense election campaign, after supporters of the ruling Fidesz party claimed their posts are being restricted to favour opposition parties. In reality, there is no weight to the allegations.
Social media accounts backing Hungary's ruling right-wing populist party Fidesz have accused tech giant Meta of political interference in the country's upcoming elections, alleging that the party and Prime Minister Viktor Orbán are being censored.
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Fidesz campaign chief
Balázs Orbán
also threw his weight behind the allegations.
"We have received numerous reports that some users have been unable to like Fidesz-related content on Facebook for the past few days", he said on X on 29 March.
However, The Cube, Euronews' fact-checking team, was not able to gather any valid evidence to back these claims.
Claims of interference
The claims emerged in an X post shared by Lebanese-Australian political commentator Mario Nawfal, who tends to align with populist leanings.
"EXCLUSIVE BREAKING: FACEBOOK RESTRICTS ORBÁN POSTS WEEKS BEFORE HUNGARY’S ELECTION," he said on 18 March.
Nawfal — who interviewed Orbán seven days later — alleged that ahead of the "crucial" elections on 12 April, Facebook was "reportedly restricting posts from the country's Prime Minister."
He suggested that this was sparked by a call from a member of the opposition Tisza Party — the pro-European conservative political party, led by former Fidesz party member Péter Magyar — who allegedly urged "supporters to mass-report" Orbán's content.
These allegations were subsequently picked up by the Polish conservative news outlet,
wPolityce.pl
, as well Mandiner, a Hungarian Fidesz-aligned newspaper. The Mandiner identified the "opposition member" referred to by Nawfal as Tisza MEP Dóra Dávid, a former legal adviser to Meta.
The Cube contacted Nawfal for further information about his claims, but did not receive a response at the time of publication. Meanwhile, there is no publicly available evidence that Meta targeted or censored posts shared by Fidesz or Orbán.
A Meta spokesperson told us that there were "no restrictions on the [Hungarian] Prime Minister's accounts" and that none of his posts had been removed.
"Our Community Standards and policies apply equally to everybody, and we have systems in place to detect any coordinated efforts to abuse our reporting systems," added the spokesperson.
A video taken out of context
The claims targeting Dávid appear to misleadingly take some of her prior claims out of context, including a video she published on her social media in November 2025.
In the video,Dávid told her followers that "propagandists and the 'Mi hazánk' group" — a far-right Hungarian political group — had accused her of "manipulating Meta's algorithms", which she said was "not true".
"You can do a lot to help ensure that the algorithm doesn't pick up on the lying, false, misleading, and hateful posts from Fidesz and those close to Fidesz", said Dávid in the video.
"How? Like this: report them and select the most appropriate category", she added, as video instructions detailing how to report content displayed on screen.
Users can flag content that violates Meta's community standards to the platform.
This includes "hateful content" which targets people for their "race, ethnicity, national origin, disability, religious affiliation, caste, sexual orientation, sex, gender identity and serious disease", according to Meta's guidelines.
Meanwhile, Meta labels misinformation as "different from other types of speech", arguing that there "is no way to articulate a comprehensive list of what is prohibited."
Users in Europe can flag content which they believe qualifies as fake news to Facebook, which is subsequently independently reviewed by fact-checkers.
However, things are different in the US: in early 2025, Meta announced that it would move away from professional fact-checkers to a "community notes" system similar to X, allowing users to write notes on posts deemed to be misleading.
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Founder Mark Zuckerberg said at the time that, under the old system, it was moderating posts "too aggressively".
Nevertheless, such a move would be more complicated to implement across Europe, due to the Digital Services Act (DSA), which aims to combat the spread of disinformation by making sure online platforms tackle any risks to democratic processes. Any platform caught flouting the rules is subject to heavy fines.
Indeed, Meta's fact-checking process appears to have stayed the same on this side of the Atlantic, at least for now. A spokesperson for the company told us that "third-pa

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## Expert Analysis

### Merits
- Meanwhile, Meta labels misinformation as "different from other types of speech", arguing that there "is no way to articulate a comprehensive list of what is prohibited." Users in Europe can flag content which they believe qualifies as fake news to Facebook, which is subsequently independently reviewed by fact-checkers.
- Related Meta and YouTube made addictive products that harmed young people, US jury finds in landmark trial Founder Mark Zuckerberg said at the time that, under the old system, it was moderating posts "too aggressively".
- Building a robust Community Notes ecosystem will take time", the spokesperson added.

### Areas for Consideration
N/A

### Implications
- This includes Hungary, where we work with AFP, and the EU." "We are beginning with rolling out Community Notes in the US, and will continue to improve it before expansion to other countries.
- Building a robust Community Notes ecosystem will take time", the spokesperson added.
- A series of social media posts accused Meta's government and social impact partner for Central and Eastern Europe, Oskar Braszczyński, of spearheading a campaign against Hungary's ruling party.
- Philip Pilkington told The Cube that he could not provide further details about his claims, but that a "senior government source in Budapest" had provided him with the information.

### Expert Commentary
This article covers meta, fidesz, posts topics. Notable strengths include discussion of meta. Readability: Flesch-Kincaid grade 0.0. Word count: 1248.