The New York Times says few people today have as much power over what is said online as Alexandre de Moraes.| Photo: Gustavo Moreno / STF
The American newspaper The New York Times reported on Friday night on Alexandre de Moraes’ order to suspend X throughout Brazil. The publication highlighted that the decision places the country alongside authoritarian nations such as China, Russia, Iran and North Korea, and recaps the entire controversy involving Moraes and Elon Musk, who, upon acquiring the former Twitter, greatly reduced restrictions on what could be said on the social network.
The decision to ban the use of VPNs to access X and the fine of R$50,000 per day imposed on anyone who tries to circumvent the ban were classified by the New York newspaper as “highly unusual”. Carlos Affonso Souza, a specialist in digital law, told the publication that the suspension of X was “the most extreme judicial decision to come out of a Brazilian court in 30 years of internet legislation in Brazil” – according to the NOW“few people in recent years have had as big an impact on what is said online as the Brazilian judge,” who “emerged as one of the country’s most powerful — and polarizing — figures after the supreme court gave him expanded powers to combat online threats to democracy.”
The publication recalled that Moraes has used the power to take down accounts quite broadly, “often through confidential decisions that do not explain why a particular account should be suspended,” and estimates the number of profiles taken down so far at 140, “mostly right-wing, including some of the most important conservative commentators and members of the National Congress.”
The NYT recaps some episodes of the legal dispute between Musk and Moraes, mentioning X’s refusal to suspend profiles and threats of arrest by the social network’s legal representative in Brazil. It also cites examples of other countries in which Musk both complied with court orders and appealed to the courts to avoid complying with orders to remove content. However, the newspaper does not clarify that, in the Brazilian case, the legislation does not provide for the complete suspension of profiles on social networks, only the removal of specific posts considered offensive.