Remember X’s Musk versus Brazilian Justice Moraes? What began as a online skirmish has developed into a big international legal war with real geopolitical repercussions.
A flurry of activity is ongoing not only online, but ‘in real life’ too, both in the Brazilian executive and Judiciary.
So many things have happened, that this article merits a list of topics to begin with:
- Brazilian Federal Police will question X’s Brazilian legal team.
- Elon Musk investigated by Brazilian court.
- President Lula meets with Justices to plan the moves ahead.
- Justice Moraes goes to Brazilian Senate to defend social media ‘regulation’.
Brazilian press reveal that Supreme Federal Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes ‘authorized’ (that’s how they put it) the Federal Police to question social network X’s Brazilian legal team.
Moraes ‘granted a request’ made by the Office of the Prosecutor General of the Republic (PGR) to ridiculously include Elon Musk in the inquiry into ‘digital militias’.
It’s a measure of Justice Moraes unbridled power that he does the things he wants to do as if ‘provoked’ by other intances of government of the Republic.
And if you are wondering what the hell ‘digital militias’ even are, that’s just the ridiculous local Brazilian catch-phrase to criminalize free speech.
The leftist state apparatus didn’t like how well Conservative Brazilians connect and organize themselves online, so they are trying to find a way to better curtail that.
In the middle of this process, Musk has fallen down like a meteor fundamentally changing the equation.
Form Justice Moraes’ order:
“In order for the PGR to better evaluate the situation under investigation in [the inquiry into ‘digital militias’], the requested measures [questioning of X’s local team] must be granted, since they are in accordance with the investigation determined for the purpose of opening the Inquiry, which aims to investigate the conduct of Elon Musk, owner and CEO of the the social network provider X.”
While Moraes flexes his unelected tyrannical powers, the actual guy who was supposed to be President, Lula da Silva, is floundering in the polls with an unpopular and ineffective government.
So Lula decided to attend a dinner at the home of Supreme Court ministers to ‘define strategies against the growing narrative of censorship on the Brazilian internet’.
Translation: he needs help to mask the rapidly worsening political environment.
Lula da Silva went to the home of Justice Gilmar Mendes in Brasília for a closed dinner with fellow justices Cristiano Zanin (Lula’s former personal criminal lawyerr), Flávio Dino (Lula’s former Justice Minister), and – of course – his royal highness Justice Alexandre de Moraes.
More than a simple political gesture towards the Justices, Lula engaged in a discussion on ‘the new wave of attacks’ on the Court.
They all agreed that the ‘institutional attacks on the Judiciary’ (a.k.a. free speech) haven’t cooled down since January 8, 2022, but – on the contrary – are currently gaining ever-increasing traction thanks to the international audience informed by billionaire Elon Musk.
So they are going all out in their objective to ‘regulate social media’ – a.k.a. censorship.
Next thing you know, Alexandre de Moraes made a rare visit to the Brazilian Senate to advocate online regulation.
While it’s a worrying development, it bears mentioning that Lula’s government usually doesn’t have the votes to approve any major bills.
Elon Musk, on X, commented on this visit: “Power to the people!”
Read more:
The Crackdown: Brazilian Communist Supreme Court Issues Arrest Warrants for Opposition Leaders Including a Comedian and a Journalist
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