Well over 45,000 Brazilians joined former President Jair Bolsonaro to protest the banning of X in Brazil by a left-wing Supreme Court justice, Alexandre de Moraes. Citizens are crying out for the restoration of freedom because X is hugely popular in Brazil and important for uncensored communication between citizens. De Morales knows exactly what he is doing, however, because as a Technocrat, he is unelected and unaccountable to anyone.
The U.S. media? Basically, crickets. Notice this story mentions “few thousand demonstrators” in clear opposition to the 45,000 protesters in the streets. Can’t they count? Bolsonaro and his supporters have been demonized in the same way that Trump and his supporters have been demonized in the United States. The U.S. State Department (Secretary Antony Blinken is a member of the Trilateral Commission) is not defending Elon Musk and X, even though X is a U.S. company and a valuable strategic resource. — Technocracy News & Trends Editor Patrick Wood
A few thousand demonstrators, clad in the yellow-and-green colors of Brazil’s flag, poured onto Av. Paulista. References to the ban on X and images of Musk abounded.
“Thank you for defending our freedom,” read one banner praising the tech entrepreneur.
Saturday’s march was seen as a test of Bolsonaro’s capacity to mobilize turnout ahead of the October municipal elections, even though Brazil’s electoral court has barred him from running for office until 2030. It’s also something of a referendum on X, whose suspension has raised eyebrows even among some of Bolsonaro’s opponents all the while stoking the flames of Brazil’s deep-seated political polarization.
On Saturday, Bolsonaro called Moraes a “dictator” and called on Brazil’s Senate to impeach the judge. He also repeated the false claim that President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva had colluded with the judiciary to steal the 2022 election.
“They want to censor the truth, so the people don’t know the truth,” Bolsonaro, with a raspy voice from a virus that sent him to the hospital earlier in the day, told the crowd.
Such comments are red meat to Bolsonaro’s supporters, who have lauded Musk’s defiance of Brazil’s judiciary.
“Elon Musk has been a warrior for freedom of speech,” staunch Bolsonaro ally and lawmaker Bia Kicis said in an interview. “The right is being oppressed, massacred, because the left doesn’t want the right to exist.”
“Our liberties are in danger, we need to make our voices heard. De Moraes is a tyrant, he should be impeached, and people on the streets is the only thing that will convince politicians to do it,” added retiree Amaro Santos as he walked down the thoroughfare Saturday,
Musk, a self-proclaimed “free speech absolutist,” has also urged Brazilians to turn out in droves for the rally, resharing someone else’s post claiming that X’s ban had awakened people “to the fact that freedom isn’t free and needs to be fought for.” He’s also created an X account, named for the controversial jurist, to publish sealed court orders directing X to shut down accounts deemed unlawful.
But De Moraes’ decision to ban X was far from arbitrary, having been upheld by fellow Supreme Court justices. And while expression, online and elsewhere, faces more prohibitions under Brazil’s laws than in the U.S., Musk has emerged as both a cause célèbre and a mouthpiece for unrestricted free speech.
Since 2019, X has shut down 226 accounts of far-right activities accused of undermining Brazil’s democracy, including those of lawmakers affiliated with Bolsonaro’s party, according to court records.
But when it refused to take action on some accounts, de Moraes warned last month that its legal representative could be arrested, prompting X to disband its local office. The U.S.-based company refused to name a new representative — as required in order to receive court notices — and de Moraes ordered its nationwide suspension until it did so.
The more controversial component of his ruling was the levy of a whopping $9,000 daily fine for regular Brazilians using virtual private networks (VPNs) to access X.
“Some of these measures that have been adopted by the Supreme Court appear to be quite onerous and abusive,” said Andrei Roman, CEO of Brazil-based pollster Atlas Intel.
In the lead-up to Saturday’s protest, some right-wing politicians defied de Moraes’ ban and brazenly used a VPN to publish posts on X, calling for people to partake in the protests.
The march in Sao Paulo is organized in parallel to official events to celebrate Brazil’s anniversary of independence from Portugal. Commemorations have been fraught with tension in recent years, as Bolsonaro used them while in office to rally supporters and show political strength.
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