Brazil vs Musk on the Front Lines of Free Speech

A concerted initiative, backed by the Brazilian government, is threatening freedom of speech across the globe.^[1] It is not clear how many international accounts have been affected, but there is little doubt Big Tech titans — Google, Facebook, Uber, Instagram and WhatsApp — have directly assisted the Brazilian government by providing registration data and contact numbers of the victims of unlawful censorship.^[2]  Some of these demands are known even to have targeted social media users outside Brazil.

At the helm of this vast and sweeping censorship is Alexandre de Moraes (above), a highly controversial criminal lawyer with ties to drug cartels who is presently serving as both president of the Superior Electoral Court and as a justice of the Supreme Federal Court. Moraes is the spearhead of a relentless government effort to stifle political dissent, including imprisoning individuals for content shared on the web. For example, in a recent statement, X Corp. (formerly Twitter)  states that the platform has been

forced by court decisions to block popular accounts in Brazil … We are threatened with daily fines if we fail to comply. We believe that such orders are not in accordance with … the Brazilian Federal Constitution, and we challenge the orders legally where possible.^[3]

According to investigative journalist Michael Shellenberger

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 politics into a weapon against supporters of then-president Jair Bolsonaro.^[4]

On Sunday, Elon Musk confronted Moraes via X posts to demand an explanation why all this should be happening.^[5]  The billionaire entrepreneur, a free speech absolutist, further noted that such “aggressive censorship appears to violate the law and will of the people of Brazil”.^[6] For daring to pose such questions, Moraes has now ordered Brazil’s federal police to launch an investigation of Musk alleging the man behind Tesla and SpaceX  is guilty of peddling “fake news” via the “intentional criminal instrumentalisation of the social network provider X”.  In that ruling, Moraes also ordered that X “not disobey any court order already issued”. Instead of being intimidated by these authoritarian outbursts and threats, a defiant Musk responded in an X post on Sunday (April 8): .^[7]

Musk also said on his X account: “This judge has brazenly and repeatedly betrayed the constitution and people of Brazil. He should resign or be impeached”.[8]

However, instead of sharing a similar concern for the preservation of free speech, Brazilian President Lula da Silva recently bestowed on Justice Moraes the nation’s greatest honour.^[9] , decorating him with the Rio Branco Medal, an award warranted for “meritorious services and civic virtues”.^[10] As noted by Shellenberger, “Lula da Silva is participating in the push toward totalitarianism … What Lula and de Moraes are doing is an outrageous violation of Brazil’s Constitution and the UN Declaration of Human Rights.”

Need it be said that de Moraes is politically aligned with Lula and that those ties run deep? He served as the Secretary of Justice of São Paulo state under Geraldo Alckmin, da Silva’s vice-president. As reported by French daily Le Monde, a couple of years ago Moraes was at the centre of a controversy when the daily Estadão^[11] published an investigation listing his ties to Brazil’s main drug trafficking syndicate, the First Command of the Capital (PCC).^[12]

On May 27, 2020, Moraes ordered the federal police to launch an operation probing businessmen, bloggers and elected parliamentarians allied with then President Jair Bolsonaro.^[13] In the decision authorising that operation, all of their accounts on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram were blocked.^[14] Among the targets of federal police actions have been the national president of the Brazilian Workers’ Party (PTB), Roberto Jefferson, and at least eight other members of congress.^[15]

During the 2022 presidential campaign, Moraes ordered Telegram, Facebook and Twitter to remove thousands of posts from social media platforms, an instruction with they complied. He also ordered the arrests and incarceration of individuals for social media posts he arbitrarily decided represented “misinformation”.^[16] In addition to issuing these arbitrary arrests for the “crime” of opinion, he also ordered the confiscation of thousands of electronic devices (computers, laptops and mobiles) and the freezing of numerous bank accounts.^[17]

On March 18, 2022, Moraes ordered the nationwide suspension of Telegram, again for being the vehicle for spreading alleged “misinformation”,^[18]  and for failing to remove such “misleading content”^[19].   Moraes followed up with an immediate edict that Apple and Google must create “technological obstacles” to block Telegram on their operating systems and to withdraw the app from their digital stores in Brazil.^[20] 

The following month, the Supreme Court sentenced a popular politician, Daniel Silveira, to almost nine years in prison for “posting insults” at these unelected judges. Acting as the case’s rapporteur, Moraes downplayed the defence’s argument that the remarks of a federal lawmaker are constitutionally protected by “parliamentary immunity.”^[21] Although the Brazilian Constitution protects parliamentary immunity, the judges simply that obstacle aside.^[22]

Later that same year, in November 2022, Nikolas Ferreira, another democratically elected member of the Brazilian parliament, had his Twitter account arbitrarily suspended by court order. This popular politician was punished by Justice Moraes for daring to post the link to a document created by Argentine journalist  Fernando Cerimedo, which raised and documented the most serious questions about the integrity of Brazil’s voting machines.[23]  Said the congressman: “I transcribed what the Argentine said on Twitter, and that’s probably why they stood down my account, with almost 2 million followers.” ^[24]

On August 23, 2023, the federal police executed numerous search warrants in five states targeting a number of business figures.^[25] By order of Moraes, their homes were raided, social media accounts suspended and their bank accounts frozen. Their “offence” was exchanging WhatsApp messages about an infamously corrupt far-left politician.^[26]

After knowing all these things, including that Moraes as the head of the Supreme Electoral Court was directly responsible for overseeing the latest presidential elections, who would dare say that the process was entirely fair and transparent?  As The New York Times reported, “Justice Moraes has acted unilaterally, emboldened by new powers the court granted itself in 2019 that allow it to, in effect, act as an investigator, prosecutor and judge all at once”.^[27]

In August 2021, US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan visited Brazil to issue the following warning to the then president Jair Bolsonaro: do not dare to question the reliability of the nation’s electronic voting system.^{[28] [29]  [30]}  [31]

President Biden rapidly embraced da Silva. In a statement released almost immediately after the electoral result announcement, Biden declared that Lula had won “following free, fair, and credible elections”.^[32]  Canada’s Justin Trudeau, France’s  Emmanuel Macron, and the British PM, Rishi Sunak released similar statements congratulating Lula on a “free and fair election”.[33]

Why all this effort to say the election was “free and fair”? Are we not supposed to believe that every democratic election must be free and fair? And why would the Biden administration insist no questions be asked of Brazil’s electoral process, its integrity and credibility? U.S. political commentator Gamaliel Isaac offers an explanation: “Maybe Biden is afraid that the Brazilians will uncover evidence of fraud in the Brazilian election that will somehow lead to uncovering of evidence of fraud in the American election?” [34] He also wonders if the Chinese Communist Party may actually have something to do with this[35] : “China wanted Lula to win, and China has a lot of influence over Biden partly because of donations to the Biden Center and probably because of [money going to] to Joe Biden’s son, Hunter.”. [36]

Be that as it may, on September 28, 2022, the US Senate approved a notorious resolution recommending the suspension of US-Brazil relations in case of any questioning of the security and transparency of the Brazilian electoral process. Otherwise, that resolution states, “the U.S. must consider its relations with the Brazilian government and suspend cooperation programs, including in the military area”[37] Not a single US senator, not even a Republican, opposed the resolution, which was moved by Democrat Tim Kaine and Socialist Bernie Sanders.[38] [39]  .[40]

According to Michael Kinley, former U.S Ambassador to Brazil from 2017 to 2018, Brazil has “strong electoral tribunals that supervise elections, work with state governments, state electoral officials in a centralized system that commands tremendous credibility”. That is, he adds, “backstopped by a Supreme Court that enforce the rules”.^[41] But how much “tremendous credibility” accrues to an electoral court comprised of so many judges  notorious for their nakedly partisan and extreme political activism? As noted by The New York Times, “the court’s expanding influence could have major implications for the winner of the presidential vote”.^[42] Writing for Newsweek, journalist Jack Dutton comments:

One of the justices, Alexandre de Moraes, jailed the head of a party allied with the nationalist president as part of a probe on alleged online misinformation and anti-democratic threats. He also opened a probe on Bolsonaro for allegedly posting confidential material on social media to try and prove an allegation of election fraud.^[43]

The world needs to know what is happening in Brazil and be aware that what is happening there is affecting the free flow of information worldwide.

In openly criticising Moraes, Elon Musk is doing what millions of Brazilians are now afraid to do for fear of being investigated, charged, fined and locked up. The only way to deal with tyrants is to confront them. [44] 

Augusto Zimmermann, who was born in Brazil, is Professor and Head of Law at Sheridan Institute of Higher Education. He is a former Associate Dean, Research, at Murdoch Law School. During his time at Murdoch, Dr Zimmermann was awarded the University’s Vice Chancellor’s Award for Excellence in Research in 2012. He is also a former Commissioner with the Law Reform Commission of Western Australia (2012-2017). Dr Zimmermann is the author/co-author of numerous academic articles and books, including ‘Foundations of the Australian Legal System: History, Theory and Practice’ (LexisNexis, 2023), ‘The Unlucky Country’ (Locke Press, 2024), and Direito Constitucional Brasileiro (Brazilian Constitutional Law) (Lumen Juris, 2014).  

[1] ‘Brazilian Censorship Scandal: Twitter Files Shows How Government and Big Tech Silence Dissent’, Reclaim The Net, 6 April 2024 at https://reclaimthenet.org/brazilian-censorship-scandal-twitter-files-shows-how-government-and-big-tech-silence-dissent

[2] ‘Brazilian Censorship Scandal: Twitter Files Shows How Government and Big Tech Silence Dissent’, Reclaim The Net, 6 April 2024 at https://reclaimthenet.org/brazilian-censorship-scandal-twitter-files-shows-how-government-and-big-tech-silence-dissent

[3] X Corp, ‘Governmental Affairs’, X, 7 April 2024, at https://twitter.com/GlobalAffairs/status/1776729732970594483?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1776729732970594483%7Ctwgr%5E733d6f5e003cc9bded471e104138efbdf6f789df%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fhumanevents.com%2F2024%2F04%2F06%2Fbreaking-elon-musk-calls-out-brazil-government-for-censoring-popular-x-accounts

[4] Michael Shellenberger, ‘Brazil is on the Brink’, X, 7 April 2024, at https://twitter.com/shellenberger/status/1776776372351836642?t=gOwXlxtMJHK8os_qzwFFcA&s=19

[5] See: https://twitter.com/GlobalAffairs/status/1776729732970594483

[6] See: https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1776732561202696575?s=07

[7] See: https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1776739518240170254?s=07

[8] See: https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1776989005848207503?s=07

[9] Cristyan Costa, ‘Lula homenageia Moraes no dia do velório de Clezão’, Revista Oeste, 21 November 2023, at https://revistaoeste.com/politica/lula-homenageia-moraes-no-dia-do-velorio-de-clezao/

[10] Cristyan Costa, ‘Lula homenageia Moraes no dia do velório de Clezão’, Revista Oeste, 21 November 2023, at https://revistaoeste.com/politica/lula-homenageia-moraes-no-dia-do-velorio-de-clezao/

[11] Edgar Maciel and Marcelo Godoy, ‘Novo secretário de Alckmin defende cooperative de van’, Estadão, January 9, 2015, at https://sao-paulo.estadao.com.br/noticias/geral,novo-secretario-de-alckmin-defende-cooperativa-de-van,1617265

[12] ‘Brésil: le juge Alexandre de Moraes, bête noire de Bolsonaro’, Le Monde, 15 October 2022, at https://www.lemonde.fr/international/article/2021/10/15/bresil-le-juge-alexandre-de-moraes-bete-noire-de-bolsonaro_6098546_3210.html

[13] ‘Polícia Federal faz buscas em endereços de Roberto Jefferson, Luciano Hang e blogueiros’, G1 Globo, 27 May 2020, at https://g1.globo.com/politica/noticia/2020/05/27/pf-cumpre-mandados-em-inquerito-do-stf-sobre-fake-news.ghtml

[14] Ibid.

[15] Ibid.

[16] Jack Nicas and André Spigariol, ‘To Defend Democracy, Is Brazil’s Top Court Going Too Far?’, The New York Times, September 26, 2022, at https://www.nytimes.com/2022/09/26/world/americas/bolsonaro-brazil-supreme-court.html

[17] Ibid.

[18] ‘Brazil: Telegram messaging app blocked by top court’, DW (Deutche Welle), 19 March 2022, at https://www.dw.com/en/brazil-telegram-messaging-app-blocked-by-top-court/a-61183805

[19] ‘Brazil judge bans messaging app Telegram for ignoring ruling’, The Economic Times, 19 March 2022, at https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/international/world-news/brazil-judge-bans-messaging-app-telegram-for-ignoring-ruling/articleshow/90325739.cms?from=mdr

[20] Bryan Harris and Michael Pooler, ‘Brazil’s supreme court blocks messaging app Telegram’, Financial Times, 19 March 2022, at https://www.ft.com/content/ff094139-b411-4850-95f7-051e3676736f

[21] ‘Jail Sentence Imposed on Brazilian Bolsonarist Lawmaker’, MercoPress, 21 April 2022, at https://en.mercopress.com/2022/04/21/jail-sentence-imposed-on-brazilian-bolsonarist-lawmaker

[22] ‘Bolsonaro Pardons Silveira One Day After His Conviction’, MercoPress, 22 April 2022, at https://en.mercopress.com/2022/04/22/bolsonaro-pardons-silveira-one-day-after-his-conviction

[23] Iolanda Fonseca, ‘Amid allegations of a stolen election, Brazilians have been protesting in the millions in over 300 locations nationwide’, The Rio Times, 7 November 2022, at https://www.riotimesonline.com/brazil-news/modern-day-censorship/opinion-amid-allegations-of-a-stolen-election-brazilians-have-been-protesting-in-the-millions-in-over-300-locations-nationwide/

[24] Ibid.

[25] ‘Bolsonaro condemns raids over Brazil’, Macau News Agency, August 27, 2022, at https://www.macaubusiness.com/bolsonaro-condemns-raids-over-brazil-coup-plot/

[26] Ibid.

[27] Jack Nicas and André Spigariol, ‘To Defend Democracy, Is Brazil’s Top Court Going Too Far?’, The New York Times, September 26, 2022, at https://www.nytimes.com/2022/09/26/world/americas/bolsonaro-brazil-supreme-court.html

[28] Robbie Gramer, ‘How Team Biden Tried to Coup-Proof Brazil’s Elections’, Foreign Policy, 28 October 2022, at https://foreignpolicy.com/2022/10/28/brazil-elections-bolsonaro-democracy-biden/

[29] Robbie Gramer, ‘How Team Biden Tried to Coup-Proof Brazil’s Elections’, Foreign Policy, 28 October 2022, at https://foreignpolicy.com/2022/10/28/brazil-elections-bolsonaro-democracy-biden/

[30] Robbie Gramer, ‘How Team Biden Tried to Coup-Proof Brazil’s Elections’, Foreign Policy, 28 October 2022, at https://foreignpolicy.com/2022/10/28/brazil-elections-bolsonaro-democracy-biden/

[31]  Tom Porter, ‘Western leaders rushed to recognise Bolsonaro’s defeat in Brazil to head off any Trump-like attempt to stay in power, experts say’, Business Insider, 31 October 2022, at https://www.businessinsider.in/politics/world/news/western-leaders-rushed-to-recognise-bolsonaros-defeat-in-brazil-to-head-off-any-trump-like-attempt-to-stay-in-power-experts-

[32] Ibid.

[33] Ibid.

[34] Gamaliel Isaac, ‘Warnings to Brazil and their Implications’, https://getinsight.pro/schools/biden_bolsonaro.htm

[35] Gamaliel Isaac, ‘Warnings to Brazil and their Implications’, https://getinsight.pro/schools/biden_bolsonaro.htm

[36] Gamaliel Isaac, ‘Warnings to Brazil and their Implications’, https://getinsight.pro/schools/biden_bolsonaro.htm

[37] ‘U.S. Senate unanimously approves resolution in defense of democracy in Brazil’, WBO (Washington Brazil Office), September 28, 2022, at https://www.braziloffice.org/press-releases/us-senate-unanimously-approves-resolution-in-defense-of-democracy-in-brazil

[38] Ibid.

[39] Tom Porter, ‘Western leaders rushed to recognise Bolsonaro’s defeat in Brazil to head off any Trump-like attempt to stay in power, experts say’, Business Insider, 31 October 2022, at https://www.businessinsider.in/politics/world/news/western-leaders-rushed-to-recognise-bolsonaros-defeat-in-brazil-to-head-off-any-trump-like-attempt-to-stay-in-power-experts-

[40] Nur Asena Erturk, ‘Macron voices support for Brazil’s Lula after protesters storm government buildings’, AA, 09 January 2023, at https://www.aa.com.tr/en/americas/macron-voices-support-for-brazil-s-lula-after-protesters-storm-government-buildings/2782981

[41] Robbie Gramer, ‘How Team Biden Tried to Coup-Proof Brazil’s Elections’, Foreign Policy, 28 October 2022, at https://foreignpolicy.com/2022/10/28/brazil-elections-bolsonaro-democracy-biden/

[42] Ibid.

[43] Jack Dutton, ‘Brazil’s Bolsonaro Rallies See Country Heading for Its Own January 6’, Newsweek, 8 September 2021, at https://www.newsweek.com/brazils-bolsonaro-rallies-see-country-heading-its-own-january-6-1626989

[44] Augusto Zimmermann, ‘Why Millions of Brazilians Have Flocked to the Streets for Democracy, The Epoch Times, 5 March 2024, at https://www.theepochtimes.com/opinion/why-millions-of-brazilians-have-flocked-to-the-streets-for-democracy-5596574