Elon Musk is the wealthy owner and CTO of social network X (formerly Twitter). On Sunday, Brazil's Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes started an investigation into Dr. Musk. Musk said over the weekend that he would not follow the court's orders to limit or stop some famous accounts on its site. This has led to a possible obstruction of justice case against him.
Moraes also asked that Musk be included in a larger investigation into what are known as "digital militias." These are people who are accused of sharing false information online to attack Brazil's political institutions. Musk made open disobedience threats on his X account, which now has 180.2 million followers. This led to the orders.
Musk was angry about the court orders and wrote on Saturday, "We are lifting all restrictions." This judge has fined us a lot of money, threatened to arrest our workers, and cut off our access to in Brazil. We will probably lose all of our money in Brazil because of this, so we will have to close our office there. But morals are more important than making money.
By Sunday, Musk was making the Brazilian Supreme Court even more angry by asking for the removal or impeachment of Moraes, the judge who made the decision about the orders. Also, Musk said that the judge in Brazil had broken the law, but he had no proof for this.
The tech billionaire also said on Sunday that he would leak information from inside X that would make Moraes look like a traitor to his own country.
He wrote, "Soon, I will make public everything Alexander de Moraes asked for and how those requests are against Brazilian law." It is clear that this judge has betrayed the law and the people of Brazil many times. You should either get rid of him or impeach him. I feel ashamed of you, Alexander de Moraes."
Muraes has long backed rules that would limit damaging content and false information on the internet in Brazil. He has had opposition from many groups, such as tech companies, far-right politicians in the country, and even former President Bolsonaro.
X, which is run by Musk, was fined for not following Australia's e-Safety rules. X is also being looked into by the European Union under their relatively new Digital Services Act. This is a set of laws that are meant to hold tech companies responsible for damaging content on their platforms, such as hate speech, child abuse, and content that encourages terrorism.
People who support free speech are worried that rules like these, which were made to stop bad things happening online or to protect users' data and privacy, can be too easily abused by the government to target or silence people they see as enemies, like activists, professors, and dissenters.
Musk has said that he is a firm believer in free speech, but his past actions have been very different. When Musk took over Twitter, he cut back on trust and safety workers who moderated material. He also made the company's rules less strict and allowed accounts that had been banned by previous management to come back.
Musk, on the other hand, has been running Tesla for years and has made its workers and customers sign strict non-disclosure and forced arbitration agreements that make it hard for them to speak freely. People who worked at SpaceX said they were fired because they wrote an open letter in 2022 criticizing Musk.
The Indian government also asked X to delete accounts and posts in February that were connected to the current protests by farmers in India.
Moraes also asked that Musk be included in a larger investigation into what are known as "digital militias." These are people who are accused of sharing false information online to attack Brazil's political institutions. Musk made open disobedience threats on his X account, which now has 180.2 million followers. This led to the orders.
Musk was angry about the court orders and wrote on Saturday, "We are lifting all restrictions." This judge has fined us a lot of money, threatened to arrest our workers, and cut off our access to in Brazil. We will probably lose all of our money in Brazil because of this, so we will have to close our office there. But morals are more important than making money.
By Sunday, Musk was making the Brazilian Supreme Court even more angry by asking for the removal or impeachment of Moraes, the judge who made the decision about the orders. Also, Musk said that the judge in Brazil had broken the law, but he had no proof for this.
The tech billionaire also said on Sunday that he would leak information from inside X that would make Moraes look like a traitor to his own country.
He wrote, "Soon, I will make public everything Alexander de Moraes asked for and how those requests are against Brazilian law." It is clear that this judge has betrayed the law and the people of Brazil many times. You should either get rid of him or impeach him. I feel ashamed of you, Alexander de Moraes."
Muraes has long backed rules that would limit damaging content and false information on the internet in Brazil. He has had opposition from many groups, such as tech companies, far-right politicians in the country, and even former President Bolsonaro.
X, which is run by Musk, was fined for not following Australia's e-Safety rules. X is also being looked into by the European Union under their relatively new Digital Services Act. This is a set of laws that are meant to hold tech companies responsible for damaging content on their platforms, such as hate speech, child abuse, and content that encourages terrorism.
People who support free speech are worried that rules like these, which were made to stop bad things happening online or to protect users' data and privacy, can be too easily abused by the government to target or silence people they see as enemies, like activists, professors, and dissenters.
Musk has said that he is a firm believer in free speech, but his past actions have been very different. When Musk took over Twitter, he cut back on trust and safety workers who moderated material. He also made the company's rules less strict and allowed accounts that had been banned by previous management to come back.
Musk, on the other hand, has been running Tesla for years and has made its workers and customers sign strict non-disclosure and forced arbitration agreements that make it hard for them to speak freely. People who worked at SpaceX said they were fired because they wrote an open letter in 2022 criticizing Musk.
The Indian government also asked X to delete accounts and posts in February that were connected to the current protests by farmers in India.
