Musk vs. Brazil’s One-Man Censor for Freedom of Speech

Musk vs. Brazil's one-man censor

MUSK VS. BRAZIL’S ONE-MAN CENSOR. Freedom of speech comes second only to freedom of religion in the US Bill of Rights. Like many subsequent constitutions, Brazil’s is similar in guaranteeing both those rights and many others. We cannot have freedom of religion without freedom of speech to make our faith known. So we should all pray for Elon Musk as he challenges Brazil’s Supreme Court to uphold those freedoms.

Because Musk has turned the formerly censorious Twitter into the free-speech platform X. Now 18% of Brazilians—about 40 million—access X at least one time per month. But since before the 2022 Brazil presidential election, one man has had the power to remove posts. Namely, Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes.

At that time de Moraes ordered investigations of presidential candidate Jair Bolsonaro. And he jailed some of Bolsanaro’s supporters for “attacks on the nation’s democratic institutions.” Now deMoraes is investigating Musk for disseminating “fake news” in posts by Bolsonaro’s supporters.

Rally for liberty

Already de Moraes has ordered Musk to remove certain censored accounts from X. But Musk has refused. On Sunday at a rally of thousands of Bolsonaro’s supporters, many speakers praised Musk.

“What you see here are people who love liberty,” said Congressman Gustavo Gayer. “They will not give up and will not kneel down to dictators, but are willing to give their lives for freedom.”

Bolsonaro himself cited Musk’s courage as “the man who really preserves true freedom for all of us.” Of course, de Moraes is targeting him for allegedly plotting a coup against current Brazilian President Lula da Silva. But many say that de Moraes has staged his own coup to become Brazil’s de facto dictator. Will all voices be heard so that Brazilians themselves can discern the truth?

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Image by Mohamed Hassan from Pixabay