Over the weekend, a dramatic information war exploded into the world’s consciousness between the left-wing government of Brazil and X social media platform owner Elon Musk.
Now Musk is under investigation, his X platform is threatened with heavy fines for each account he refuses to censor, and Musk has publicly called for the resignation or impeachment of Brazil’s president.
The outline of the extraordinary battle began earlier when Brazilian Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes, with the blessing of the president, demanded that accounts the government claimed were passing bad information be scrubbed. The order came on the heels of reporter Michael Schellenberger releasing the Brazilian Twitter Files which the judge and President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva had broken the nation’s constitution in a variety of ways, not least censoring its citizens.
At first, X, like Facebook and its WhatsApp and Instagram properties, as well as gangster platform Google and even Uber went along with the censorship. Musk told users they were being censored and told them about the type of private information the government was trying to get from X.
Schellenberger reported that “Google, Facebook, Uber, WhatsApp, and Instagram betrayed the people of Brazil.” He said his investigation found evidence to suggest that the social media platforms provided “the Brazilian government with personal registration data and telephone numbers without a court order and, therefore, violating the law.” He added that “when Twitter refused to provide Brazilian authorities with private user information, including direct messages, the government attempted to sue Twitter’s top Brazilian lawyer.”
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Musk said, “As a result, we will probably lose all revenue in Brazil and have to shut down our office there. But principles matter more than profit.”
Schellenberger reported:
…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 from the Brazilian Congress. And Moraes tried to turn Twitter’s content moderation policies into a weapon against supporters of then-president Jair Bolsonaro.
Musk called Schellenberger’s findings “accurate.”
Accurate
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 7, 2024
Musk then told Brazilians how to circumvent government censorship by explaining how to set up a Virtual Private Network (VPN).
To ensure that you can still access the 𝕏 platform, download a virtual private network (VPN) app https://t.co/ui55eq2KKp
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 7, 2024
Google’s approved news agencies’ reactions to the story were highlighted on its search engine.
The Associated Press reported that the beef was only over “fake news,” reporting that the Brazilian justice, Alexandre de Moraes, accused Musk of “waging a public ‘disinformation campaign’ regarding the top court’s actions and that Musk continued the following day — most notably with comments that his social media company X would cease to comply with the court’s orders to block certain accounts.”
CNN reported that Musk’s refusal to censor users “prompt[ed] calls for social media controls in Brazil” as if the censorship was Musk’s fault. How incredibly embarrassing for a news agency that at one time believed in free speech.
Reuters was the closest to getting the story right with this headline, “Brazil judge opens inquiry into Musk after refusal to block accounts on X.”
The outlet also reported:
Moraes is investigating “digital militias” that have been accused of spreading fake news and hate messages during the government of former far-right President Jair Bolsonaro and is also leading an investigation into an alleged coup attempt by Bolsonaro.
So far it sounds like Obama and Biden’s efforts to shut up Donald Trump.
Perhaps apropos of nothing, Biden’s Secretary of State Antony Blinken, the man who orchestrated the catastrophic bug-out of Afghanistan, gave shrink-wrapped billions to Iranian mullahs, and repudiates Bibi Netanyahu more than Ali Khamenei, met with Brazil’s Lula.
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They discussed “hunger and poverty, mobiliz[ing] against the climate crisis, and mak[ing] global governance more effective.”
He sounds like he’s right out of Klaus Schwab’s central casting.
I’m rooting for free speech. You? Put your thoughts in the comments.
My old SPJ t-shirt reads, “Talk is Cheap, Free Speech Isn’t.” My old colleagues at the Society of Professional Journalists and its members seem to have forgotten that their place is to call out censorship no matter the cost. You can strike a blow against censorship by becoming a PJ Media VIP Member. You can join here, and don’t forget to use our 50% off SAVEAMERICA promo code.