Brazilian Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes, who is widely viewed as controversial because he seems to use the judicial system to impose his will on others, is targeting X owner Elon Musk and employees at the company for refusing to restrict accounts on the platform that engage in what he alleges is the dissemination of fake news.
De Moraes is so controversial that even The New York Times notes that he uses “a broad interpretation of the court’s powers” to “investigate and prosecute, as well as to silence on social media, anyone he deems a menace to Brazil’s institutions.”
The Times noted that he has jailed people for social media posts, suspended an elected governor from his job, “ordered raids on businessmen with little evidence of wrongdoing,” and has “unilaterally blocked dozens of accounts and thousands of posts on social media, with virtually no transparency or room for appeal.”
In addition to investigating Musk and X for content allowed on the platform, de Moraes has now opened a separate probe into Musk for what he claims is a “disinformation campaign” against Brazil’s court system.
“The flagrant conduct of obstruction of Brazilian justice, incitement of crime, the public threat of disobedience of court orders and future lack of cooperation from the platform are facts that disrespect the sovereignty of Brazil,” de Moraes claimed.
Musk said that de Moraes “demanded that X suspend accounts of people who raised corruption concerns while insisting that X pretend the suspension was for violating our terms of service!”
“We obey the laws of countries even if we disagree with them, but this required violating the laws of Brazil,” he added.
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Musk said that de Moraes was one of the justices who “pulled [Current Brazilian President Luiz Inácio] Lula [da Silva] out of prison and put his thumb on the scale to get Lula elected,” and added that “Lula will obviously not take action against him. The next election will be key.”
Brazilian politician Nikolas Ferreira asked Musk to give the people more information about his allegations that de Moraes “put his thumb on the scale to get Lula elected.”
“We need to get our employees in Brazil to a safe place or otherwise not in a position of responsibility, then we will do a full data dump,” Musk responded. “They have been told they will be arrested.”
They have been told they will be arrested
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 9, 2024