Yesterday, Brazilian Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes made good on his warning of 24 hours earlier to Elon Musk that Musk’s social media platform — annoyingly known as X — would be blocked throughout the country if Musk did not comply with an order to name a legal representative in Brazil. Musk refused; the deadline passed; and Judge de Moraes ordered X blocked, leaving some 40 million Brazilians unXpectedly, inXplicably, and — to them — inXcusably . . . X-less.

X’s side of the story, posted on its official Global Government Affairs page on Thursday, was that it expected to be shut down by de Moraes, “simply because we would not comply with his illegal orders to censor his political opponents. When we attempted to defend ourselves in court, Judge de Moraes threatened our Brazilian legal representative with imprisonment. Even after she resigned, he froze all of her bank accounts. Our challenges against his manifestly illegal actions were either dismissed or ignored. Judge de Moraes’ colleagues on the Supreme Court are either unwilling or unable to stand up to him.” [Associated Press, August 30, 2024.]

Previous orders by the Brazilian government included shutting down accounts belonging to lawmakers affiliated with former President Bolsonaro’s party, as well as activists accused of undermining Brazilian democracy. [Id.]

Musk, who identifies himself as a “free speech absolutist,” says that Judge de Moraes’ actions amount to censorship, and has called him a dictator and a tyrant. [Id.]

If all of this is beginning to sound familiar to you, you’re not imagining things. Because a similar battle is presently raging in France, where the CEO of messaging app Telegram is under arrest for allegedly being complicit in criminal activities of some of his company’s clients. That man is Russian-born billionaire entrepreneur Pavel Durov, now a dual citizen of France and the United Arab Emirates, and — like Musk — an advocate of the absolute right of free speech . . . no exceptions!

So what are we looking at here? Two caped crusaders who happened to come to Earth at the same time, fighting the same battle against evil and injustice?

Or a couple of very smart, very rich, very entitled narcissists who will fight to the bitter end simply because they can’t bear to admit they might conceivably be wrong?

Or — what a concept! — two people who really, honestly, sincerely believe in every individual’s right to privacy and freedom of speech?

Whatever the case may be, their stories will be fascinating to follow.

Just sayin’ . . .

Brendochka
8/31/24