A concerted initiative backed by the Brazilian government is forcing high-tech companies such as Google, Facebook, Uber, Instagram, and WhatsApp to provide registration data and carry out unlawful censorship.
At the helm of this vast censorship scheme is Alexandre de Moraes, president of the Superior Electoral Court and a justice of the Supreme Federal Court.
Mr. Moraes is directly leading the effort in Brazil to stifle all political dissent, including imprisoning individuals for content shared on the web.
“Moraes illegally demanded that Twitter reveal private information about Twitter users who used hashtags he considered inappropriate. He demanded access to Twitter’s internal data, violating the platform’s policy.
“He censored, on his own initiative and without any respect for due process, posts on Twitter by parliamentarians form the Brazilian Congress. And Moraes tried to turn Twitter’s content moderation politics into a weapon against supporters of then-president Jair Bolsonaro.”
For daring to ask these things, Mr. Moraes has now ordered the opening of an investigation by the federal police against Mr. Musk.
Mr. Moraes has also demanded the inclusion of Mr. Musk’s name in a “fake news” inquiry, alleging his “intentional criminal instrumentalization of the social network provider X, in connection with an inquiry which investigates ”misinformation” on social networks.
In the ruling, Mr. Moraes demands that X “not disobey any court order already issued.”
However, instead of sharing a similar concern for the preservation of free speech, Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva has recently bestowed on Justice Mr. Moraes the nation’s greatest medal of honour, the Rio Branco Medal.
Built-Up Since the Election
This saga between Mr. Moraes and Mr. Musk is just the latest move in the Brazilian judge’s long-running campaign to control the narrative and suppress alternative voices in social media.During the 2022 presidential campaign, Mr. Moraes ordered companies such as Telegram, Facebook, and Twitter to remove thousands of posts from social media platforms.
He also ordered the arrest of individuals without a fair trial for social media posts claimed to provide “misinformation.”
In addition to issuing these arbitrary arrests for the crime of opinion, Mr. Moraes ordered the confiscation of thousands of electronic devices as well as the freezing of numerous bank accounts.
He also ordered the nationwide suspension of Telegram for spreading “misinformation” and demanded Apple and Google block Telegram on their operating systems and withdraw the app from their digital stores in Brazil.
On Aug. 23, 2022, the federal police executed numerous search warrants in five states targeting businessmen who supported former President Jair Bolsonaro. By order of Mr. Moraes, their homes were raided, their social media accounts were suspended, and their bank accounts were frozen.
These individuals were then investigated over a couple of messages posted in their WhatsApp group in which some expressed their concerns about the return of President Lula, a socialist with a history of corruption.
“How did Alexandre de Moraes become the dictator of Brazil? He has Lula on a leash.”
When criticising Justice Alexandre de Moraes, Mr. Musk is basically fighting against judicial tyranny and speaking on behalf of millions of Brazilians who are now too afraid to express their feelings or to oppose the official narrative.
