A judge of the Brazil Supreme Court has included billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk as a target in an ongoing investigation into the spread of fake news and accused him of obstructing proceedings in the matter. In response, Musk, the owner of the social media platform X, has accused the judge of betraying Brazil's constitution and its people, and issued an extraordinary call for him to be sacked. What's going on? We explain. First, what did the Brazilian Supreme Court ask of X? The Brazil Supreme Court has been looking into the issues of fake news and online disinformation, which is false information that has been deliberately shared with malicious intent. The spread of fake news and false information on Brazil’s online spaces has been a concern for years, particularly its role in influencing the country’s politics through WhatsApp and YouTube. As part of it, Justice Alexandre de Moraes ordered some X accounts to be blocked. How did Musk and X respond? X’s Government Affairs account said on April 7 that the court forced it to block “certain popular accounts in Brazil” and the reasons for blocking them were unknown. Musk then made clear his intention to disobey the order on the same day. In a post, he said, “Coming shortly, X will publish everything demanded by @Alexandre (the judge in question) and how those requests violate Brazilian law. This judge has brazenly and repeatedly betrayed the constitution and people of Brazil. He should resign or be impeached. Shame @Alexandre, shame.” The next day, he referred to the judge’s order as “the most draconian demands of any country on Earth!” He has since made multiple posts against de Moraes. What was the provocation for Musk to be included in the investigation? Among his many recent posts against the judge, Musk shared an X user’s post on “TWITTER FILES - BRAZIL”. It claimed that “Brazil is engaged in a sweeping crackdown on free speech led by a Supreme Court justice named Alexandre de Moraes.” In multiple posts, the user claimed de Moraes has “thrown people in jail without trial for things they posted on social media” and “required the censorship of specific posts, without giving users any right of appeal or even the right to see the evidence presented against them.” Musk termed this “aggressive censorship”. This aggressive censorship appears to violate the law & will of the people of Brazil — Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 6, 2024 Adding that X will not comply, he posted, “We are lifting all restrictions. This judge has applied massive fines, threatened to arrest our employees and cut off access to X in Brazil.” For every day that X retains the accounts mandated to be blocked, a fine of 100,000 reais ($20,000) will be imposed on the social media giant, Reuters reported. How has the Supreme Court reacted? Justice Alexandre de Moraes said on Sunday (April 7) that Musk was waging a “disinformation campaign” on the court’s actions. He referenced Musk’s actions in his order, saying, “The flagrant conduct of obstruction of Brazilian justice, incitement of crime, the public threat of disobedience of court orders and future lack of cooperation from the platform are facts that disrespect the sovereignty of Brazil.” According to the Associated Press, which cited the text of the judgment, “Musk will be investigated for alleged intentional criminal instrumentalisation of X as part of an investigation into a network of people known as digital militias who allegedly spread defamatory fake news and threats against Supreme Court justices”. Who is judge Alexandre de Moraes? This is not the first time de Moraes’s orders have caused social media giants to react. He was also overseeing the case against former right-wing politician and Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro (2019-2022). Bolsonaro has been under investigation over the January 8, 2023 riots in Brasilia. His supporters entered government buildings and attacked them, a week after current president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva was sworn in after winning the 2022 elections. Many right-wing Brazilians see de Moraes as a biased judge. He earlier instructed the blocking of right-wing social media accounts in relation to the January 2023 riots. In 2020, de Moraes ordered Facebook and Twitter (not owned by Musk at the time) to block accounts spreading illegal content. While they agreed, those accounts were still accessible if a user changed their app settings to show a foreign location. The judge demanded a complete blocking, which Facebook challenged. In 2022, de Moraes banned the secure messaging app Telegram temporarily, for not complying with an investigation into neo-Nazi chat groups. However, a federal court later lifted it, saying a total ban was “not reasonable” given its impact on the freedom of communication for those not involved in the probe, DW reported. Meanwhile, President Lula da Silva's leftist government has supported the judge’s recent move. Solicitor General Jorge Messias said in a post on X, "We cannot live in a society in which billionaires domiciled abroad have control of social networks and put themselves in a position to violate the rule of law, failing to comply with court orders and threatening our authorities.” Why Musk refused to accept the Brazil Supreme Court's order Musk has claimed to be a “free speech absolutist”, claiming that governments instructing blocking of accounts infringes on people’s rights. X has complied with some government requests in the past. In February 2024, X posted that the Indian government “issued executive orders requiring X to act on specific accounts and posts, subject to potential penalties including significant fines and imprisonment.” While it said it would comply with the orders, it disagreed with these actions, maintaining that “freedom of expression should extend to these posts.” In 2021, according to Twitter’s transparency report, more than 300 legal demands were submitted to block verified accounts of journalists and news websites by the governments of India (114), Turkey (78), Russia (55), and Pakistan (48). Musk was also accused of silencing his critics on his platform, when accounts of several critical journalists were suspended in January 2024. Many of them claimed that the details of the grounds of suspension were not provided to them.
