X owner Elon Musk is challenging an order from Brazil’s increasingly authoritarian Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes, who ordered the platform to block certain accounts in the country.
Independent reporter Michael Shellenberger provided an overview of the situation in Brazil in a lengthy X post over the weekend. “Brazil is engaged in a sweeping crackdown on free speech led by a Supreme Court justice named Alexandre de Moraes,” Shellenberger wrote.
De Moraes has thrown people in jail without trial for things they posted on social media. He has demanded the removal of users from social media platforms. And he has required the censorship of specific posts, without giving users any right of appeal or even the right to see the evidence presented against them,” he continued. Shellenberger went on to list a number of ways that de Moraes and the nation’s highest court have continuously attempted to “undermine democracy in Brazil,” which includes a demand of access to the platform’s data, illegal demands to reveal the identities of users who have criticized his conduct, censorship of opposing political leaders and a “weaponization” of the platform’s content moderation policies.
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