As we reported earlier, Brazilian Justice Alexandre de Moraes censored free speech in the country and suspended the accounts of political opponents and journalists on X. Brazilian officials won’t tolerate criticism; they call all criticism lies.
Elon Musk was told to shut down accounts but refused. The judge threatened to arrest the Brazilian employees of the X platform.
The Attorney General of Brazil, Jorge Messias, Justice Alexandre de Moraes, and President Lula called for Elon Musk to shut down popular accounts, or they would shut down X.
Elon Musk said free speech is more important than the money he would lose.
Local media reported that representatives of the Supreme Court requested information about the procedures required to block X. The banned accounts weren’t restored.
This is from a state-friendly newspaper (Google translation):
Supreme Court Minister Alexandre de Moraes, also president of the Superior Electoral Court (TSE), to leave telecommunications operators on standby for a possible court order blocking the activities of platform Twitter), as a result of the attacks that Elon Musk (controller of X) has made on the platform against the Superior Electoral Court and its president.
The report said they were waiting for a court order.
If the block happens, it will apply to all broadband operations, including the Starlink service, also controlled by Elon Musk, operated by Musk in Brazil through an authorization from Anatel, and which has 150 thousand users. If Musk, also on this front, decides to confront the Brazilian authorities by failing to comply with a decision, the consequences could, at the limit, be a suspension of the telecommunications service.
The escalation between platforms. Subsequently, Musk continued the attack by threatening to disregard court orders to restrict content considered by the TSE to be illegal in light of electoral legislation, including personally exposing the president of the TSE in relation to these actions, which he described as censorship.
The Union’s Attorney General, Jorge Messias, spoke out after Musk’s attacks, defending the urgent regulation of social networks and criticizing the fact that “billionaires domiciled abroad” attack Brazilian authorities. The Communication Secretariat of the Presidency of the Republic (Secom) also declared that “the sovereign will not be protected by the power of Internet platforms and the business model of big techs.”
During the past elections, Anatel acted on several occasions following orders from the TSE to block accounts and activities considered illegal by the electoral court. Recently, the regulatory agency and the TSE signed an agreement for joint action during the 2024 municipal elections. The agency works as a kind of propagator of court orders blocking telecommunications operators, guiding companies on which IPs and websites (DNS ) must be blocked as determined by the Court. Once the block has been determined, Anatel monitors compliance with the order.
We are watching fascism take over the Constitutional Republic of Brazil in 2024. Soon, it could be the United States. We learned nothing from Castro, Stalin, Mao, Hitler, nothing.
Elon Musk puts a lot on the line for free speech.
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