Social media regulation after Musk’s investigation into the January 8, 2023, January 8th protest in Brazil: Jorge Mesquias vs. Jorge Messias
Brazil wants an urgent focus on social media regulation as a result of the order and investigation into Musk. The attorney general of Brazil, who is named Jorge Messias, posted to X on Saturday that billionaires have control of social networks and need to obey the rule of law. Social peace is not negotiable.
The team said they couldn’t say which court or judge issued the order. “We believe that such orders are not in accordance with the Marco Civil da Internet or the Brazilian Federal Constitution, and we challenge the orders legally where possible.”
When X was taken down, he told users in Brazil to get a virtual private network to use, so they wouldn’t see de Moraes’ demands.
De Moraes’ defenders have said his decisions, although extraordinary, are legally sound and necessary to purge social media of fake news as well as extinguish threats to Brazilian democracy — notoriously underscored by the Jan. 8, 2023, uprising in Brazil’s capital that resembled the Jan. 6, 2021 insurrection in the U.S. Capitol.
The order to ban certain profiles on the site, which used to be called twitter, may be connected to theJanuary 8thriots in Brazil or the supporters of the former president. The platform has become the site of misinformation and harmful rhetoric since being purchased by Musk in 2022, with the European Union recently criticized X for not being able to moderate false news around the Israel-Palestine war.
In a society where billionaires have control of social networks, they will be in a better position to violate the rule of law.
Musk has said many times that he will follow the rule of law, even if he positions himself as a defender of free speech. In an interview with Don Lemon last month, Musk said that X has a “responsibility to adhere to the law” and would take down illegal content. Last April, Forbes reported that X has fully complied with over 80 percent of government censorship requests, compared to the roughly 50 percent that were accepted before Musk took ownership of the company.
A warning against the violation of Brazilian constitution’s right to speech and a court order by Xem Moraes on a bang
Brazil’s constitution was drafted after the 1964-1985 military dictatorship and contains a long list of aspirational goals and prohibitions against specific crimes such as racism and, more recently, homophobia. Freedom of speech isn’t absolute.
Moraes warned against doing so, saying each blocked account that X eventually reactivates will have a 100,000 reais fine and the responsible will be held responsible for disobeying a court order.
Musk had not published de Moraes’ demands as of late Sunday and prominent blocked accounts remained so, indicating X had yet to act based on Musk’s previous pledges.
