Elon Musk feuds with Brazilian judiciary

Elon Musk accuses Alexandre de Moraes of censoring X

Elon Musk has lambasted Alexandre de Moraes, one of the 10 judges on Brazil’s Supreme Court, for ordering X to block several accounts, including that of a blogger and two members of Congress. For a while now, Brazil’s Constitutional Court has been clamping down on so-called digital militias accused of spreading disinformation and vitriol online.

Musk, who owns X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter, took aim at Moraes saying “this aggressive censorship appears to violate the law & will of the people of Brazil.”

Musk followed up his post with an even stronger message on X: “This judge has brazenly and repeatedly betrayed the constitution and people of Brazil. He should resign or be impeached. Shame @Alexandre, shame.”

Musk also said he would defy the Constitutional Court order to block users and reactive the accounts.

Investigation into Musk conduct

Defiantly, Musk announced that “We are lifting all restrictions. This judge has applied massive fines, threatened to arrest our employees and cut off access to 𝕏 in Brazil. 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.”

Moraes, in turn, reacted by ordering federal police to launch an investigation into Musk for obstruction of justice and incitement to commit crimes. He said Musk was now also being investigated as part of the broader probe into the so-called anti-democratic digital militias and their financing.

Jair Bolsonaro (left) met Elon Musk in May 2020

Spat spurs polarization

This Musk-Moraes confrontation has further deepened Brazil’s political polarization. While the New York Times celebrated Supreme Court Justice Moraes as a defender of democracy, Brazil’s former right-wing populist President Jair Bolsonaro lauded Musk as a “legend of freedom.”

Bolsonaro has sought to capitalize on the power struggle and further his own agenda, calling on his supporters to “take to the streets for freedom” on April 21 in Rio de Janeiro’s Copacabana neighborhood.

Bolsonaro’s son Eduardo meanwhile, who holds a seat in Brazilian parliament, said he wants to convene an expert hearing on the “Twitter files and censorship in Brazil” in the foreign relations committee.

Alexandre de Moraes’ actions have drawn both praise and scorn

What are the Twitter files?

The “Twitter files” refer to a number of internal Twitter documents published on X between December 2022 and March 2023 after Musk acquired the platform. Musk had handed the files over to a select number of journalists and writers, including US author Michael Shellenberger.

Shellenberger is a climate skeptic who regards himself as a “libertarian” activist. He holds controversial views and has been criticized numerous times for publishing inaccurate environmental data.

He recently claimed on X that at “any moment, Brazil’s Supreme Court could shut off all access to X/Twitter for the people of Brazil,” adding the South American country was on the “brink of dictatorship at the hands of a totalitarian Supreme Court Justice named Alexandre de Moraes.”

Supreme Court Justice Moraes accused of ‘censorship’

Shellenberger accuses Brazil’s Supreme Court of several legal offenses, saying Supreme Court Justice Moraes had ordered X to hand over users’ personal data because they had published hashtags Moraes “did not like.”

Shellenberger said Moraes had requested access to the social network’s internal data in breach of X guidelines. He also said Moraes had “censored on his own initiative and without any respect for due process” posts on the platform made by members of Brazilian Congress, and used the social network to go after supporters of former President Bolsonaro.

Yet Brazilian lawyer Fernando Boscardin, who teaches at the University of Miami School of Law, disagrees. He says Shellenberger is not genuinely concerned about freedom of expression but wants to “prevent the regulation of social media platforms akin to the European model.”

Elon Musk has called for Alexandre de Moraes to resign

Fake news law in the pipeline

Media outlets report that Brazilian Congress is poised to adopt a law to combat fake news. The first draft dates back to 2020 but was withdrawn several times due to pushback from tech companies and right-wing lawmakers, most recently in May 2023.

Due to the delay, Brazil’s Supreme Electoral Court passed several resolutions earlier this year for the upcoming municipal elections on October 6. They stipulate that electoral courts must have “efficient instruments to combat misleading party advertising, hate speech, anti-democratic statements and the use of artificial intelligence.”

Misinformation experts interviewed by Brazilian daily O Globo told the outlet they thought Elon Musk’s accusations against the Brazilian judiciary went too far.

“Musk would have to ask a court to clarify whether the constitution has been violated,” said Yasmin Curzi, a lawyer and professor at Fundacao Getulio Vargas, a Rio de Janeiro university.

She added that Musk’s threat to “defy court orders is a violation of national sovereignty.”

This article was translated from German.

Author: Astrid Prange de Oliveira