BRAZIL IS ON THE BRINK I’m reporting to you from Brazil, where a dramatic series of events are underway. At 5:52 pm Eastern Time, today, April 6, 2024, X corporation, formerly known as Twitter, announced that a Brazilian court had forced it to “block certain popular accounts in Brazil.” Then, less than one hour later, the owner of X, @ElonMusk announced that X would defy the court’s order, and lift all restrictions. “As a result,” said Musk, “we will probably lose all revenue in Brazil and have to shut down our office there. But principles matter more than profit.” At any moment, Brazil’s Supreme Court could shut off all access to X/Twitter for the people of Brazil. It is not an exaggeration to say that Brazil is on the brink of dictatorship at the hands of a totalitarian Supreme Court Justice named Alexandre de Moraes. President Lula da Silva is participating in the push toward totalitarianism. Since taking office, Lula has massively increased government funding of the mainstream news media, most of which are encouraging increased censorship. What Lula and de Moraes are doing is an outrageous violation of Brazil’s constitution and the United Nations Declaration of Human Rights. At this moment, Brazil is not yet a dictatorship. It still has elections and the Brazilian people have other means at their disposal to confront authoritarianism. But the Federal Supreme Court and the Superior Electoral Court are directly interfere in those elections through censorship. Three days ago I published the Twitter Files for Brazil. They show that Moraes has violated the Brazilian Constitution. 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. I say this as an independent and non-partisan journalist. I'm not a fan of either Bolsonaro or Trump. My political views are very moderate. But I know censorship when I see it. The Twitter Files also revealed that Google, Facebook, Uber, WhatsApp and Instagram betrayed the people of Brazil. If such evidence is proven, the executives of these companies behaved like cowards: they provided the Brazilian government with personal registration data and telephone numbers without a court order and, therefore, violating the law. When Twitter refused to provide Brazilian authorities with private user information, including direct messages, the government attempted to sue Twitter's top Brazilian lawyer. When I lived in Brazil in 1992, I was very left-wing. At the time, Lula and the PT's slogans were “Without fear of being happy”. In recent days, I have spoken to dozens of Brazilians, including professors, journalists and respected lawyers. Everyone tells me they are shocked by what is happening. They told me that they are afraid to speak their mind and that the Lula government is complicit in creating this climate of fear. Brazil belongs to the Brazilians. It is not my country. As such, there are limits to what I am capable of doing. But I can say things that many Brazilians do not feel safe saying: Alexandre de Moraes is a tyrant. And the only way to deal with tyrants is to confront them. It is up to Brazil’s senators to confront the tyrant. And it is up to the people of Brazil to demand that their senators do so.
@shellenberger I feel sorry for the people of Brazil, but am glad to see Musk sticking with his principles 💜💜💜
@shellenberger This is America's future unless we stop it now.
Not a fan of Trump? He is brash and rude and says what he thinks BUT he did not increase inflation to ridiculous amounts, have us thisclose to a hot war with Russia, prosecute, jail, and censor political enemies, allow Illegal criminals to invade us by the millions, use taxpayer funding to make those illegals wealthier than many Americans, prosecute Christians, or launder taxpayer dollars through Ukraine and right into politicians' pockets.
@shellenberger Why do journalists like Shellenberger feel the need to insert addendums like "I am not a fan of Trump..." What the hell does that have to do with anything?
@shellenberger Bolsonaro and Trump are on the right side of history. They saw this coming and are trying to stop it. They are being persecuted, The same people are using lawfare against conservative attorneys and MAGA to strike fear into everyone.
@shellenberger Sounds like what’s happening here. Tyranny is enveloping the globe. Lord help us
As a creator, I used to post on YouTube and noticed that we wasn't allowed to criticize the election of Brazil. That was the moment that confirmed to me that there must have been some shenanigans in that election process. Anytime they cut out the tongue of the speaker, you need to listen harder to what was being said. This is exactly why they are trying to remove X there. They don't want the truth being told or for people to see another opinion but their own on display.
@shellenberger You know there was massive fraud in their election and guess who was behind it? Our alphabet mafia.