Twitter X announced on Saturday that the social media giant will shut down operations in Brazil after the communist Supreme Court Justice Alexandre Moraes threatened to jail X’s legal representative and staff in the country.
Here is the announcement posted on X Global Affairs account.
Last night, Alexandre de Moraes threatened our legal representative in Brazil with arrest if we do not comply with his censorship orders. He did so in a secret order, which we share here to expose his actions.
Despite our numerous appeals to the Supreme Court not being heard, the Brazilian public not being informed about these orders and our Brazilian staff having no responsibility or control over whether content is blocked on our platform, Moraes has chosen to threaten our staff in Brazil rather than respect the law or due process.
As a result, to protect the safety of our staff, we have made the decision to close our operation in Brazil, effective immediately.
The X service remains available to the people of Brazil.
We are deeply saddened that we have been forced to make this decision. The responsibility lies solely with Alexandre de Moraes.His actions are incompatible with democratic government. The people of Brazil have a choice to make – democracy, or Alexandre de Moraes.
—
Last night, Alexandre de Moraes threatened our legal representative in Brazil with arrest if we do not comply with his censorship orders. He did so in a secret order, which we share here to expose his actions.
Despite our numerous appeals to the Supreme Court not being heard,… pic.twitter.com/Pm2ovyydhE
— Global Government Affairs (@GlobalAffairs) August 17, 2024
This is not a surprise, as Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes has targeted Elon Musk and X for years now.
From our previous reporting in April 2024…
Brazil’s conservatives and freedom lovers are in a state of bliss watching billionaire Elon Musk stare down their very own Supreme Court Justice-turned tyrant Alexandre de Moraes, using the unvarnished truth to demolish his reputation, and subjecting the justice to a barrage of ridicule that he so deserves.
The story is very simple: not only is Moraes demanding that X suspend the accounts of prominent conservatives, against Brazilian law, and under the penalty of heavy daily fines, but he also ‘forbids’ the company from even mentioning the reason for their suspension – X would have to pretend they were struck because they broke the platform terms of use – which they have not.
Musk: “We kept getting these demands from Judge Alexandre to suspend accounts of sitting members of the parliament and major journalists. We could not tell them that this was at the behest of Alexandre, we had to pretend that it was due to our rules. And that was the last straw, and we said no.”
So, now it seems as if Musk is the iceberg into which the Titanic ship of Brazil’s unbridled censorship will crash and sink.
Moraes included Musk on the ridiculous inquiry against the – nonexistent – ‘digital militias’ and so X’s head started to tell the world the real deal about the reality of Brazil’s politics:
How did @Alexandre de Moraes become the dictator of Brazil? He has Lula on a leash
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 9, 2024
He even ‘went there’ and said what every free-thinking Brazilian knows: Lula is only out of prison and into power because of Moraes’ actions:
But since Alexandre pulled Lula out of prison and put his thumb on the scale to get Lula elected, Lula will obviously not take action against him.
The next election will be key.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 9, 2024
So, now, Musk will disclose all the petty tyrant’s demands for the world to see:
Coming shortly, will publish everything demanded by @Alexandre and how those requests violate Brazilian law.
This judge has brazenly and repeatedly betrayed the constitution and people of Brazil. He should resign or be impeached.
Shame @Alexandre, shame.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 7, 2024
Just read this from Glenn Greenwald: “The only time in my entire career as a journalist that I have ever wondered if I should really be questioning, challenging, or critiquing a political official is this person, who has gone so far as to order people to be imprisoned without a trial for criticizing him. […] If you criticize Alexandre De Moraes, you get banned or perhaps imprisoned, which is why I spent every second up until this show started on the phone with my lawyers.”
Criticism of Moraes actions came even from where you’d least expect it, with the founder of Eurasian Movement of Russia, Alexander Dugin declaring support for the African-American billionaire in his Free Speech stance against liberal-aligned Brazilian Supreme Court:
I think the decision of Brasil to censor https://t.co/JPsGKa01ru is wrong and disastrous. It is obvious that it is for now the only global network without any censorship. We can hate something that is going on on https://t.co/JPsGKa01ru or adore. But the real freedom is like…
— Alexander Dugin (@Agdchan) April 8, 2024
“I think the decision of Brasil to censor http://x.com/ is wrong and disastrous. It is obvious that it is for now the only global network without any censorship.
We can hate something that is going on on http://x.com/ or adore. But the real freedom is like this.
Only http://x.com/ can provide the correct picture how the things really are on the global scale.
And it is wothless in the era of total falsehood. Obviuosly, http://x.com/ is not ultimate truth and it doesn’t pretend to be it. Just good old freedom of speech we have lost anywhere else…”
Brazil is watching this unfold with a big smile on its face. But, while the country’s shortcomings are being shown to the world in an spectacular fashion, it’s also good to know that this is also made by the US State Department and Joe Biden, who were behind the sudden emergence of Moraes as an über censor.
Here’s Musk finding out that he is being investigated by Brazilian Federal police:
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