Musk’s X goes to war with the Brazilian state over censorship

For some time, social media companies operating in Brazil have been forced to implement sweeping censorship measures at the apparent whim of one Supreme Court judge – Alexandre de Moraes. Back in December of last year, video publishing site Rumble opted to effectively leave the country rather than obey de Moraes’s demands that it block specific accounts.

Until recently X, formerly known as Twitter, had opted to play ball in order to be allowed to remain in the country. But it now looks like X owner Elon Muskwas just biding his time, having apparently given independent journalist Michael Shellenberger access to another tranche of The Twitter Files, this time with a focus on Brazil. As a presumed condition of that access, Schellenberger first published his findings on X last week.

Within days of that publication, Musk announced on X that he would be lifting all restrictions imposed by de Moraes. He made it clear that he was doing so in the full knowledge of what this exceptionally powerful judge would do in retaliation but insisted this is a matter of principle. Furthermore, Musk vowed to soon publish every demand made of Twitter by de Moraes, which he asserted violate Brazilian law.

It seems de Moraes has wasted little time in retaliating, reportedly demanding the Brazilian telecoms regulator, Anatel, explore avenues for forcing operators to take X offline.

Greenwald, a well-known independent journalist who lives in Brazil, has been reporting on this matter for some time. You can see his latest below. X and Rumble (which also took down its service in France over similar unilateral censorship demands from the state) are setting an important precedent by their refusal to kowtow to arbitrary, authoritarian censorship demands. The hope is that moves such as this will put sufficient public pressure on powerful individuals lie de Moraes that they moderate their positions.