Brazilian Supreme Federal Tribunal (STF) Minister and “anti-fake news crusader” Alexandre de Moraes has opened an inquiry into Elon Musk and the social media platform X (formerly Twitter) after Musk announced he would defy a Brazilian court order that demanded the censoring of several accounts. Musk also called for de Moraes’ resignation.
De Moraes, who is also the head of Brazil’s Superior Electoral Tribunal (TSE), opened the investigation on Monday, instructing the Brazilian Federal police to determine if Musk has engaged in alleged “obstruction of justice” and “incitement to crime.”
On Saturday Musk announced that X would defy a court order issued by de Moraes that demanded the social media platform censor a group of Brazilian accounts or risk a daily fine of 100,000 Brazilian reais (roughly $19,770) for each account that the platform failed to censor. On Sunday, Musk called for de Moraes’ impeachment or resignation.
In a separate post issued by the X global affairs account, the social media platform said it is “prohibited from saying which accounts are impacted,” and said it would challenge the court orders.
Musk’s announcement came days after journalist Michael Shellenberger published a series of posts titled “Twitter Files – Brazil,” in which he listed actions and demands taken by de Moraes in order to censor Brazilian politicians and supporters of former president Jair Bolsonaro. De Moreas also demanded access to X’s internal user data, which would represent a violation of the platform’s own privacy policies.
De Moraes responded to Musk’s announcements by opening an inquiry into him and his social media platform for alleged obstruction of justice and incitement to crime, asserting that Musk had launched a “disinformation campaign” against the Brazilian top court.
The inquiry’s ruling also stated the X social media platform “must abstain from disobeying” any court order, including the reactivation of the accounts that the Brazilian top court has ordered X to censor.
On Sunday De Moraes included Musk in a separate active inquiry opened by the STF Minister in July 2021 to investigate alleged “anti-democratic digital militias” that spread “fake news.”
De Moraes claimed that Musk’s inclusion in the the inquiry is due to the “intentional criminal exploitation” of the social network platform.
“In the present hypothesis, therefore, the use of illegal mechanisms by ‘X’ is characterized; as well as the presence of strong indications of intent by the CEO of the social network ‘X’, Elon Musk, in the criminal instrumentalization previously pointed out and investigated in several inquiries,” the ruling reportedly reads.
De Moraes, who styles himself as an “anti-fake news crusader,” has used the “anti-democratic digital militias” inquiry in the past to conduct “Operation Venire,” a broad probe into allegations that former president Bolsonaro falsified vaccination documents to travel to the United States. Bolsonaro’s home was raided under Operation Venire in May 2023.
Former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro speaks to the press outside his home before getting into a car after Federal Police agents carried out a search and seizure warrant in Brasilia, Brazil, Wednesday, May 3, 2023. (Eraldo Peres/AP)
The STF Minister is also notorious for having issued censorship rulings against Bolsonaro’s 2022 presidential campaign that greatly benefited current socialist current President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, who narrowly defeated Bolsonaro in the October 2022 runoff election.
In recent years, the STF Minister has ordered multiple police raids against lawmakers, comedians, content creators, and regular Brazilian citizens who expressed support for Bolsonaro during his presidency (2019-2022).
Both Lula and de Moraes have called for the regulation of social media in Brazil. In February, de Moraes claimed that there is a “need for general regulation by the National Congress in defense of democracy” and described the use of mass media as one of the “big problems” of modern democracies.
President of the Supreme Electoral Court, Minister Alexandre de Moraes, arrives to preside over the trial of former President Jair Bolsonaro at the Supreme Court in Brasilia, Brazil, Thursday, June 29, 2023. (Gustavo Moreno/AP)
De Moraes had former lawmakers arrested over content published on social media and forced social media companies to deplatform and restrict access to specific accounts in previous years.
Recently, de Moraes ordered a raid on the home of one of Bolsonaro’s sons, Carlos Bolsonaro, as part of a broader probe into illegal espionage activities allegedly committed during his father’s presidency. De Moraes ordered Bolsonaro to hand over his passport in February, effectively trapping the former president in the country.
As a member of the TSE, Brazil’s top electoral authority, de Moraes is among the ministers that banned Bolsonaro from running for office until 2030 for allegedly spreading “misinformation” about Brazil’s electoral voting machines in an official encounter with foreign ambassadors in July 2022.
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