Alexandre de Moraes has opened an official
investigation.
Dan Frieth
Alexandre de Moraes, Brazil’s powerful president of the Superior Electoral Court (TSE) and Supreme Federal Court (STF) justice, on Sunday ordered the federal police to launch a “digital militias” investigation – prompted by X owner Elon Musk’s “conduct.”
This was Moraes’ reaction to
what is qualified as an “attacks and disinformation campaign” against him and
the two courts. He was referring to a series of posts by Musk on Saturday and
Sunday, which, among other things, called for Moraes to either resign or be
impeached.
Musk was posting about
restrictions imposed on accounts on X at the behest of Brazil’s authorities,
and on Sunday said he would publish “everything demanded by (Moraes) and how
those requests violate Brazilian law.”
Similar censorship efforts
have been spearheaded by Moraes for years now, with his “claim to fame” moment
being the role he played during Brazil’s presidential election in 2023.
In almost a carbon copy of
what went on around the 2020 US vote, now former President Jair Bolsonaro and
his supporters were accused of spreading “misinformation” because they
questioned the integrity of the ballot.
All this resulted in social
platforms, including X, being ordered to censor content and accounts.
Now, after Musk first revealed that Brazilian authorities are forcing X to block several popular accounts without providing any justification, and then that he would “publish everything” Moraes demanded – Moraes came back with the police investigation.
He also used the opportunity
to call for “urgent regulation” of social media in Brazil, effectively accusing
Musk, as “a billionaire domiciled abroad,” of ignoring court orders,
undermining the rule of law and democracy, and, “threatening (Brazil’s) authorities.”
This (over)reaction to Musk’s
posts on X was supported by a pro-government member of the country’s lower
house of the National Congress, Orlando Silva, who justified the order by
saying, “We have reached a limit. It is a response in defense of Brazil.”
On the other hand, Musk also
seems to have reached his limit in complying with censorship demands coming out
of Brazil. Over the weekend he revealed that those orders come with a gag order
prohibiting the platform from revealing which judge or court had issued them,
and on what grounds.
Musk believes that Moraes is
behind all this, and suggested that he should resign or be forced to step down,
as he “brazenly and repeatedly betrayed the Constitution and people of Brazil.”
Dan Frieth, Reclaim the Net, April 8, 2024
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