Elon Musk is publicly defending freedom of speech in Brazil and claiming that orders issued by Alexandre de Moraes, a Justice of STF (Brazil’s Supreme Court), have censored certain people and opinions. Musk says these orders are illegal, and that they compel his platform X (former Twitter) to shut down its domestic operations and be banned from the country. Musk is also now under criminal investigation as ordered by the same Alexandre de Moraes.
George Orwell himself could not think of a better idea to update his novel 1984 for the 21st century. Perhaps his literary qualities would help him to come up with a more subtle story, one that would not obviously prove Musk’s point so quickly.
What may have been a shock to many in the United States and everywhere Musk’s tweets have reached, does not actually surprise most Brazilians, at least those who are following the rise of STF — under Alexandre de Moraes’ control — to wield unlimited power and become the most powerful branch of Brazil’s government.
Elon Musk’s involvement began after “Twitter Files Brazil” were revealed by Michael Shellenberger, American journalist, and two Brazilian colleagues, David Ágape and Eli Vieira, on Wednesday, April 3. Shellenberger had just arrived in São Paulo for a couple of interviews before heading to Porto Alegre for the Forum da Liberdade, where he spoke before an audience of more than 5,000, mostly young students. Internal communications among X/Twitter employees in Brazil showed that the company had received orders to ban users, delete specific content, and provide personal information of users, in what Rafael Batista, senior legal counsel of X/Twitter in Brazil, considered a violation of both the Brazilian Constitution and Marco Civil da Internet, the specific Act of Congress that regulates the internet.
In the US, according to Shellenberger, the FBI, Homeland Security, and “other agencies” (meaning the CIA) interfered with Twitter’s application of its own Terms of Services, to suppress content and shadow ban users. This was aimed initially at terrorism and pedophilia but ended up being used to censor opinions on COVID-19 and related responses, the US elections, the invasion of Congress on January 6, and other political opinions.
Unlike what happened in the US, the Brazilian version of Twitter files shows interference not from the Executive branch, but by the STF. The Brazilian Constitution upholds freedom of speech, and legislation protects the privacy of social media users, but despite that Batista claims that he (Twitter Brazil), was ordered to ban people without telling them that there was a court order. Yes, Alexandre de Moraes was banning people from social media without even letting them know they were under investigation.
