🚨URGENTE - Bolsonaro diz que bloqueio do Twitter/X é golpe duro contra a liberdade!
“A saída do X do Brasil representa mais um duro golpe à nossa liberdade! (…) Hoje acordamos sem o Twitter, e me acusavam de ser um ditador”
Brazil’s President Lula says he respects free speech, the rule of law, and free markets, but he doesn't. Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes appears close to blocking X and has just frozen the bank accounts of Elon Musk’s Starlink satellite Internet company. And many in Brazil believe Moraes is doing so with the support of Lula.
The freezing of Starlink’s bank account and the expected banning of X are flagrantly illegal acts. They are acts of retaliation for X defying Moraes’ censorship demands, which Brazilian legal experts say violate Brazil’s Constitution. Moraes demanded that X permanently ban politicians and journalists, which would effectively end their careers.
As such, Brazil is now effectively a dictatorship. It is run by two men, Lula and Moraes. They are today ending freedom of speech and free markets. Brazil is no longer safe for foreign investment, and its currency should reflect that.
It is notable that the imminent blocking of X appears likely to occur just a few weeks before local elections in Brazil on October 6, with the run-off on October 27. As such, the demands for censorship and attacks constitute election interference, which is illegal in Brazil and the US.
Some say Lula is not responsible for Moraes’s actions. The executive and judicial branches are separate in Brazil, as they are in the U.S. Officially, the Supreme Court blocked X and frozen bank accounts, not President Lula.
However, Brazilians close to the situation agreed that Moraes would not have taken such radical actions if he didn’t have Lula's support. “Lula had plenty of opportunity to distance himself from the censorship project,” noted one person.
As proof, many point to the fact that Lula and Moraes share as a key ally on the Supreme Court, Justice Dias Toffoli. He worked as a lawyer for Lula’s Workers Party (PT) for many years. Toffoli was part of the famous “Car Wash” corruption scandal that sent Lula to prison in 2018. And it was Toffoli who created a “Fake News Investigation,” a key moment in the creation of a Censorship Industrial Complex in Brazil.
“After the 2022 elections,” wrote David Ágape last year, “Moraes met with the president-elect, urging the implementation of social networks regulation legislation. Throughout the election, Moraes used various methods to broadly censor Lula's opponents, a tactic many believe was instrumental in Lula's victory."
And other details confirm that Moraes has the support of President Lula. Yesterday, a Brazilian journalist reported that Moraes won the support of at least two other Supreme Court Justices before announcing he would shut down X if the company did not submit a Brazilian representative for arrest for violating Moraes’ censorship orders. One of them told the journalist, “no company can operate in Brazil without legal representation and in disrespect of the laws and national sovereignty.”
Those Supreme Court Justices told the reporter, “Moraes would have the support of the majority of the Supreme Court if it were necessary to suspend the social network's activities in the country.”
Those Justices defended Moraes, saying that his “decision to notify Musk via X was an attempt to give the billionaire another chance to keep the social network online. The minister didn't even need to do that. He could have simply suspended the platform's activities without any subpoena because he had already complied with the legal procedure before.”
In 1994, I interviewed Lula and asked him if he intended to turn Brazil into a socialist dictatorship like Cuba. He said no, that was not his intention. It appears he lied and is now in the process of doing just that.
The other two nations that have completely blocked X are China and North Korea. If Lula and Moraes follow through on their threat, and entirely cut off access to X later today, Brazil will have gone further than Iran, Russia, Burma, and other authoritarian nations.
The Senate can impeach Moraes and Brazilian journalists told me that the main reason it hasn't is because Moraes controls many Senators due to various legal cases against them and their families.
But the freezing of the bank accounts of an American company is now a geopolitical issue. President Joe Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris, and Secretary of State Anthony Blinken must immediately demand that President Lula end Brazil’s illegal attack on free markets, freedom of speech, and the rule of law.
Resistance to Lula and Moraes is growing in Brazil. A large national protest demanding the impeachment of Moraes will take place in São Paulo. A petition for impeachment now has over one million signatures.
It appears that the most influential newspaper in Brazil, the Folha de São Paulo, is turning against Moraes. It editorialized against censorship earlier this year. It published articles, including one by American journalist Glenn Greenwald, exposing illegal procedures used by Moraes. A few days ago, Moraes censored an interview by the Folha with an aide to former President Bolsonaro, whom Moraes had incarcerated without a trial.
Brazil’s crackdown could backfire against Lula. Musk is popular in Brazil in part because of the benefits of satellite Internet in rural Brazil. After severe flooding in a southern Brazil state last spring, Musk donated 1,000 Starlink kits with free service for emergency first responders.
Essa semana já começou com um cara se recusando a transcrever 1 linha de planilha pra mim. A pessoa preferiu TIRAR UMA FOTO DA PLANILHA, do que escrever o que estava escrito nela.
Na boa, eu não tenho paciência pra isso mais não
Sem brincadeira. Já deve fazer uns cinco anos desde que eu precisei fazer um calculo inteiro em papel. Como tive que fazer isso agora me senti tão nostálgico que tive que postar.