Elon Musk and his defense of freedom against leftist censorship in Brazil

@ElentirENG ES 4·08·2024 · 7:02 0

In the last few hours, an important battle for freedom of expression has been waged in Brazil, where the left seeks to impose censorship.

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The dictatorial drift of the left in Brazil

Last Wednesday, the journalist Michael Shellenberger denounced the maneuvers of Alexandre de Moraes, leftist judge of the Federal Supreme Court of Brazil, who was Minister of Justice between 2016 and 2017, during the mandate of leftist President Michel Temer. Shellenberger noted: "Brazil is engaged in a sweeping crackdown on free speech led by a Supreme Court justice named Alexandre de Moraes."

The American journalist added: "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."

Twitter brings Moraes' antidemocratic demands to light

These accusations stem from Twitter's own files that reveal that judge's demands on that social media platform. Shellenberger has pointed out that these files "eveal that de Moraes and the Superior Electoral Court he controls engaged in a clear attempt to undermine democracy in Brazil", through the following measures:

— illegally demanded that Twitter reveal personal details about Twitter users who used hashtags he did not like;

— demanded access to Twitter’s internal data, in violation of Twitter policy;

— sought to censor, unilaterally, Twitter posts by sitting members of Brazil’s Congress;

— sought to weaponize Twitter’s content moderation policies against supporters of then-president @jairbolsonaro

Elon Musk refuses to bow to leftist censorship in Brazil

Shellenberger added that these files show "the origins of the Brazilian judiciary’s demand for sweeping censorship powers; the court’s use of censorship for anti-democratic election interference; and the birth of the Censorship Industrial Complex in Brazil." The journalist added: "We presented these findings to de Moraes, to the Supreme Court (STF), and to the High Electoral Court (TSE). None responded." That silence is not strange at all, if we take into account that the current president of Brazil, the leftist Lula da Silva is carrying out an assault on the judiciary in that country.

This past Sunday, the owner of X (formerly called Twitter), Elon Musk, stated: "This aggressive censorship appears to violate the law & will of the people of Brazil." Musk also stated the following: "We are lifting all restrictions. This judge has applied massive fines, threatened to arrest our employees and cut off access to 𝕏 in Brazil. As a result, we will probably lose all revenue in Brazil and have to shut down our office there. But principles matter more than profit."

The authoritarian tradition of the left-wing

What is happening in Brazil is, unfortunately, the birth of a new socialist dictatorship, following in the footsteps of the extreme left in countries like Venezuela, Bolivia, Nicaragua and now also Colombia (without forgetting the communist dictatorship from Cuba). The procedure is always the same: appropriate the judicial power and suppress democracy, imposing authoritarian repression against political rivals. It is the same path that the left seems determined to follow in Spain led by Pedro Sánchez and his coalition government made up of socialists and communists.

One of the few pockets of true freedom left on the internet

Before Elon Musk's arrival on Twitter, the left had the collaboration of the owners of that social network to impose its censorship. On Twitter, the persecution of conservatives became suffocating, with arbitrary procedures that imposed very lax standards on left-wing users and very strict standards on right-wing users. It is the same situation that is occurring on Facebook and Instagram, social networks in which Meta, owned by Mark Zuckerberg, is imposing increasingly crazy censorship and even allowing governments to limit freedom of speech openly violating the law and democratic principles.

Fortunately, Musk came to Twitter with the purpose of recovering freedom of expression and now the left sees his censorship plans and his attempt to degrade democracy until it becomes something indistinguishable from a dictatorship. Musk's firmness in defense of freedom of expression is to be appreciated, especially because Twitter is one of the few strongholds of true freedom left on the Internet, increasingly gripped by the desire of certain politicians (not only on the left: also some so-called "centrists") to regulate all aspects of our lives, a hyperregulation that seems taken from Stalin's dreams.

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Photo: FoxBusiness.