Greenwald highlights - @elonmusk 's opposition to Brazil's authoritarian censorship regime.

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@ggreenwald
highlights
@elonmusk
's opposition to Brazil's authoritarian censorship regime.

The censorship framework in Brazil mirrors tactics employed by the US government to suppress dissenting voices under the guise of combating disinformation.

"Any criticism of this judge that offends him will result in punishment, no trial, no due process, and that's what they've done now to Elon Musk."

"This censorship regime has no basis in law. They actually tried to pass a law several months ago that would democratically enact this censorship regime to formally define the powers and the responsibilities of big tech. But they could not get the votes in Congress to pass it."

Thus, Judge Alexandre de Moraes was given unilateral authority to dictate permissible online speech.

"When they issue these orders to these platforms, they say, we want this member of Congress banned, we want this journalist banned, we want this activist banned. They provide no due process. They provide no explanation. And these orders are never sent to the individuals who are being censored."

"There is no judicial process for contesting the order. If you do try to contest it, you go right to the judge who issued it, and obviously, you have no chance of being heard."

"It's not just censorship. It's censorship with no due process in the most Kafkaesque way; there's not even a legal framework for it."

"They're not even allowed to inform their users that they received a judicial order. Let alone disclose to the public or their users what the content of the order is. They just have to obey and ban the individuals named in the order, and if they don't do so within two hours of receipt, they will face daily fines of $20,000 for every account they fail to ban."

In January 2023, Greenwald obtained one of these judicial orders that revealed arbitrary bans on democratically elected congress members of the House and Senate, including 25-year-old politician Nikolas Ferreira, who garnered record-breaking support.

Ferreira not only secured a historic victory by amassing the largest vote total of any congressional candidate in Brazil's history but also garnered over a million votes in his state, surpassing all other candidates in the 2022 election.

However, despite his widespread support, the judge overseeing the censorship regime arbitrarily banned Ferreira from all online platforms, silenced him, and deprived him of his online presence without any explanation or opportunity for due process.

Senators, journalists, and activists who express dissenting opinions or criticize this censorship are similarly targeted for censorship by the same judge, highlighting the authoritarian nature of these actions.

"Needless to say, Google, YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp, which is by far the most popular chat platform in Brazil, have always just meekly complied with every censorship order they got from Brazil, but Elon Musk decided he had enough."