The media is not exploring this conflict between Twitter/X and Brazil correctly. What’s happening is that one justice on their Supreme Court equivalent, Alexander de Moraes (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexandre_de_Moraes), has been abusing his position to illegally suppress political opposition. You can read about it in this thread:
Note that Twitter is not refusing to comply with local laws. They’re saying that the orders from Moraes are not legal under Brazilian law, and therefore they are refusing to comply. Moraes is one justice. There is a due process there. You can’t just arbitrarily order bans on social media accounts or call for people of the opposing political camp to be arrested for illegal speech, even in Brazil. Moraes, for his part, claims he was given the power to unilaterally censor speech and arrest violators by the Superior Electoral Court (a different court from the one he is a sitting justice on). Which makes no sense, since the courts cannot make up laws, since they are not the legislature.
By the way Musk isn’t the only one criticized Moraes. Even the New York Times wrote an article that labeled him as a threat to Brazilian democracy, as have various press organizations:
More disturbingly, their new leader Lula - who has a history of corruption and authoritarianism - has been calling for criminalizing lies, whatever that means:
https://x.com/shellenberger/status/1775516415023251835
Note that Twitter is not refusing to comply with local laws. They’re saying that the orders from Moraes are not legal under Brazilian law, and therefore they are refusing to comply. Moraes is one justice. There is a due process there. You can’t just arbitrarily order bans on social media accounts or call for people of the opposing political camp to be arrested for illegal speech, even in Brazil. Moraes, for his part, claims he was given the power to unilaterally censor speech and arrest violators by the Superior Electoral Court (a different court from the one he is a sitting justice on). Which makes no sense, since the courts cannot make up laws, since they are not the legislature.
By the way Musk isn’t the only one criticized Moraes. Even the New York Times wrote an article that labeled him as a threat to Brazilian democracy, as have various press organizations:
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/01/22/world/americas/brazil-ale...
More disturbingly, their new leader Lula - who has a history of corruption and authoritarianism - has been calling for criminalizing lies, whatever that means:
https://www.public.news/p/brazil-should-terrify-you