Brazilian President Lula and Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes say they must block X to protect Brazil’s independence. X is a platform for dangerous, false, and hateful words, they say, and many of those words violate Brazil’s laws and Constitution.
But their censorship goes far beyond what Brazil’s constitution allows. The government demanded that X and other social media networks censor and ban individual people, including journalists and politicians. Such bans are immoral, illegal, and unconstitutional. They constitute election interference and undermine democracy by preventing candidates from getting the word out.
I agree that lying is wrong, hate speech is ugly, and there are limits to freedom of speech. We must not allow people to use words that directly result in physical violence.
But everybody lies, everybody engages in hate speech, and the limits to free speech must never include elections. Imagine what would happen if it were illegal to lie: everyone should go to prison starting with the journalists and politicians. As for hate speech, did Lula express hatred when he praised Adolf Hitler? Does he not express hatred every time he speaks of Elon Musk and Jair Bolsonaro?
People blame speech for the chaos of January 6 in the United States and January 8 in Brazil. But the events of those days resulted from inadequate security, not anything anyone said online. And if the government can censor disfavored election information, how would anyone ever know if the government stole an election?
Democracy and secure elections depend on freedom of speech. The idea that we must censor speech to protect democracy ranks with other Orwellian ideas like “War is peace” and “Slavery is freedom.” For thousands of years, democracy and freedom walk hand in hand, as do censorship and dictatorship.
Everybody knows in their heart that censorship is wrong. We all know that we are imperfect and do not know everything. We know that we rely on others to discover the truth. Why, then, do so many people want censorship?
🚨MITOS - Presidente Bolsonaro homenageou Silvio Santos em vida e recebeu um conselho de ouro do mestre da TV
“Que você não mude nada, o povo gosta de você assim como você é. Não precisa fazer discurso, nem nada”
Por toda a contribuição para a história não só da TV brasileira, mas do Brasil, Silvio Santos jamais será esquecido. Seu legado permanecerá vivo por gerações e nas lembranças da família brasileira. Meus sentimentos aos familiares. Sábado triste para todos nós.
"O Supremo Tribunal, maior corte do Brasil, virou vergonha nacional, da pátria que nos pariu..
Nunca passou em concurso, reprovado na OAB, defensor de vagabundo, ADVOGADO DO PT" 🎶
MC REAÇA, Recordar é viver...
Acordou uma nação 👏🇧🇷 e como de costume do establishment, foi "suicidado"..