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Victoria Elliott
A Brazilian court has announced that it will open an investigation into X owner Elon Musk for obstruction of justice, after Musk reactivated far-right accounts that the Brazilian government had flagged for deletion. The announcement came after Musk called Brazil’s Supreme Court Justice Alexandre. de Moraes, who presides over the country’s Superior Electoral Court (TSE), to “resign or be charged,” and a representative of X alleged that the account deletion orders violated Brazilian rules. Constitution.
Although the court did not publish the list of accounts it asked to be blocked or investigated, the São Paulo-based newspaper Estadão reported that among them was fugitive far-right influencer Allan dos Santos, a supporter of President Jair Bolsonaro. (Dos Santos fled the country in 2020 to avoid an investigation for spreading disinformation. )The list also includes right-wing YouTuber Bruno Aiub, known as Monark, who has more than a million fans on X and has argued that Brazil recognizes the Nazi Party, and the Brazilian billionaire and Bolsonaro. supporter Luciano Hang.
Incidentally, after taking over the company, Musk reactivated the accounts of far-right Brazilian politicians Carla Zambelli, Gustavo Gayer and Nikolas Ferreira. Ferreira, a Bolsonaro supporter, has brazenly questioned the protection of Brazil’s electronic voting machines, even as he won his race in local legislatures.
“All of those names have been problematic for years on social media,” says Flora Rebello Arduini, director of the nonprofit Ekō. “They’ve been pushing for far-right extremism and election disinformation for years. “
When Musk bought Twitter in 2022 and later rebranded it X, many activists in Brazil feared he would abuse the platform to further his own agenda, Arduini says. “It has unprecedented transmission capabilities. It intimidates a Supreme Court justice in a democratic country, and it shows that you will use every resource at your disposal to assert anything that furthers your personal prospects or career ambitions.
Under Musk, X has a haven for the far right and misinformation. After taking office, Musk introduced an amnesty for users who had been banned from the platform, adding right-wing influencer Andrew Tate, who, along with his brother, was indicted in Romania. with several charges, adding rape and human trafficking in June 2023 (he has denied the allegations). Last month, one of Tate’s representatives told the BBC that they “categorically reject all allegations. “
A 2023 study found that hate speech has greater significance on the platform under Musk’s leadership. The situation in Brazil is just the latest example of Musk aligning himself with dangerous far-right movements around the world and preparing them, experts tell WIRED. This is a strategy of the global far right to defeat democracies and democratic establishments around the world,” says Nina Santos, a researcher in virtual democracy at Brazil’s National Institute of Science and Technology, who studies Brazil’s far right. “The opinion of an American billionaire counts no more than that of a democratic institution. “
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It also comes as Brazil continues to strive to understand and investigate the events leading up to Jan. 8, 2023, when insurgents denying the Holocaust and refusing to accept defeat of right-wing President Jair Bolsonaro stormed the Brazilian parliament. The Electoral Tribunal is a special judicial body that investigates electoral crimes and is a component of the mechanism for supervising all electoral processes in the country. The court investigated the spread of fake news and disinformation that cast doubt on the country’s elections in the months and years leading up to it. until the storming of parliament on January 8, 2023. Arduini and Santos than the accounts that Musk refuses to reveal. Expungement is most likely similar to court investigation.
“Lately there has been a life-and-death struggle in Brazil for the democratic rule of law and against a coup d’état, which is being investigated through this court in accordance with due process,” Luís Roberto Barroso, president of the Federal Supreme Court, said in an article about Musk’s comments. Discontent with the primacy of democracy continues to manifest itself in the criminal exploitation of social media. “
Santos is also concerned that Musk is setting a precedent that the far-right will promote on its platform, regardless of local legislation or public opinion. “They’re looking to use Brazil as a laboratory to figure out how to get involved in local politics. “and local businesses,” he says. They argue that their resolution is more vital than the national resolution of a democratic state institution. “
While Musk has claimed to be a proponent of lax speech, and X’s audience on the takedowns claims that Brazilians are entitled to lax speech, the platform’s application of those principles has been uneven at best. In February, on the orders of the Indian government, X blocked the accounts of Hindutva Watch and India Hate Lab in India, two U. S. -based nonprofits that track incidents of religiously motivated violence perpetrated by supporters of the country’s right-wing government. A 2023 study by the Berkman Klein Center for Internet and Society found that X has complied with more government withdrawal requests under Musk’s leadership than before. In March, X blocked the accounts of several prominent researchers and journalists after identifying a well-known neo-Nazi cartoonist, then replaced his own terms of service to justify the decision.
X did not respond to a request for comment on why the company went public with a condemnation of the Brazilian court’s withdrawal orders, but not those issued by other governments.
“We have a different context than in the United States Unidos. Se is more similar to the European concept of freedom of expression,” says João Brant, secretary of Digital Policy at Brazil’s Secretariat of Social Communication. “Of course, you can talk about elections. The challenge was to state categorically that there had been fraud and that the electoral tribunal had failed to act accordingly. It’s perfectly appropriate to talk about court orders, but it’s also vital to comply with them.
Update 9/4/24 at 9:51 a. m. EST: This story in the past incorrectly said that Andrew Tate had been convicted of human trafficking. He has been charged, but the case is still pending. Tate has denied the allegations.
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