After the owner of X (formerly Twitter) posted criticisms and threats, Minister Alexandre de Moraes orders the PF to investigate the businessman’s conduct and establishes a fine if the platform reactivates blocked accounts.
(DW) Justice Alexandre de Moraes, of the Federal Supreme Court (STF), ordered on Sunday (07/04) that the Federal Police (PF) open an investigation into the conduct of billionaire Elon Musk, owner of the social network X (formerly Twitter), after the businessman made attacks against the minister at the weekend.
Moraes ordered the PF to investigate whether Musk committed crimes of obstruction of justice, “including criminal organization and incitement to crime”.
The minister also included Musk among those investigated in the digital militia inquiry, ordered X not to disobey court orders and stipulated a daily fine of R$100,000 per profile blocked by the courts that the platform reactivates, as well as determining liability for disobedience of those legally responsible for the company in Brazil in the event of non-compliance.
Billionaire threatened to reactivate blocked accounts
In his decision, Moraes states that the internet is not a lawless land and that platforms are responsible for what they publish. “The dignity of the human person, the protection of the lives of children and adolescents and the maintenance of the democratic rule of law are above the financial interests of providers of social networks and private messaging services,” he writes.
On Saturday, the billionaire announced that he was lifting all restrictions on his X accounts imposed by the Brazilian courts. But by the end of Sunday, the threat had not been carried out.
Moraes claims that Musk is promoting a “disinformation campaign” about the actions of the STF and the Superior Electoral Court (TSE).
“The use of illegal mechanisms by ‘X’ is characterized; as well as the presence of strong indications of intent by the CEO of the social network ‘X’, Elon Musk, in the criminal instrumentalization previously pointed out and investigated in several inquiries,” says the text of the decision, stating that the businessman spread fake news through social networks.
“The conduct of ‘X’ constitutes, in theory, not only abuse of economic power, by trying to ILLEGALLY impact public opinion, but also blatant inducement and instigation to the maintenance of various criminal conducts practiced by the digital militias investigated in INQ 4.874, with aggravation of the risks to the security of the members of the SUPREME FEDERAL COURT,” writes Moraes.
Moraes accuses X and Musk of disrespecting Brazil’s sovereignty. “The flagrant conduct of obstruction of Brazilian justice, the incitement to crime, the public threat of disobedience to court orders and the future lack of cooperation from the platform are facts that disrespect the sovereignty of Brazil and reinforce the connection of the malicious criminal instrumentalization of the activities of the former Twitter, now X,” wrote the minister.
Moraes is the STF’s rapporteur for investigations such as the digital militias case (about the dissemination of false information and hate speech on social media, with the aim of undermining institutions and democracy) and the 8 de Janeiro case (about an attempted coup d’état by supporters of former president Jair Bolsonaro).
In recent years, the minister has ordered social networks to block some of the targets of these investigations, claiming that they were using the platforms for irregular practices.
On Saturday, Musk began a series of posts on X criticizing Moraes. “Why are you demanding so much censorship in Brazil?” wrote the billionaire, in response to a post by the minister.
The businessman then stated that the platform will reactivate the blocked accounts, in contempt of court, even if it “costs the company to close in Brazil and damages profits”. On Sunday, he said that Moraes is the Darth Vader of Brazil, in reference to the villain from the Star Wars film series.
Twitter Files Brazil
The background to Musk’s accusations against Moraes is the so-called Twitter Files Brasil, a series of emails released last Wednesday by American journalist Michael Shellenberger on the social network itself. Exchanges of messages between employees of the former Twitter, in 2020 and 2022, complain about decisions by the Brazilian courts ordering the deletion of content in investigations into the dissemination of fake news.
Based on the series of emails, Shellenberger accuses Moraes and the TSE of practicing what he claims are four illegalities: 1) requiring the former Twitter to reveal personal details about users who published hashtags that Moraes “didn’t like”; 2) demanding access to internal data from the social network, in violation of the platform’s policy; 3) unilaterally censoring posts by Brazilian parliamentarians; 4) and trying to turn the social network’s content moderation policies to combat supporters of former president Jair Bolsonaro.
The decisions cited in the emails are not unprecedented and involve investigations into attacks on STF ministers and the dissemination of fake news.
Michael Shellenberger is known as a climate activist and co-founder of the environmental research center Breakthrough Institute. The journalist defines himself as a “libertarian militant” and defends controversial positions, having been challenged several times for publishing incorrect data on environmental issues.
md/bl (ots) *** Translated by DEFCONPress FYI Team ***