Owner of X criticizes Moraes after journalist accuses minister for alleged “repression of freedom of expression”
The owner of X (former Twitter), Elon Musk, classified this Sunday (7 April 2024) the demands mentioned by Twitter Files Brasil as “draconian”. The term, which has its origin in the name of an Athenian legislator from the 8th century BC, Dracon, is an adjective that refers to the measure as “excessively strict” or “drastic”, according to the Oxford dictionary.
“These are the most draconian demands of any country on Earth!”, published Musk on his profile. He shared news that echoed another of his statements, saying that he would suspend X do Brasil after the publication by journalist Michael Shellenberger, called Twitter Files.
The case cites demands from the Judiciary between the years 2020 and 2022, which requested, among other things, the provision of personal data from Twitter users, removal of content and investigations. The email exchange mentioned by the journalist mentions minister Alexandre de Moraes and some demands from the TSE (Superior Electoral Court) under his mandate. Read more in this report.
The owner of X spent the weekend criticizing STF (Supreme Federal Court) minister Alexandre de Moraes for practicing what he called “aggressive censorship”.
He began by directly asking Moraes’ profile why the minister demanded so much censorship of X, making reference to the content revealed by Shellenberger.
Earlier, I had said that the STF’s actions seemed “violate the law and the will of the people of Brazil”.
MORAES
Until the publication of this report, Minister Alexandre de Moraes –who has his own profile on X– had not publicly commented on Musk’s statements.
To the Poder360 The STF press office informed that the Supreme Court will not comment on the case.
Know more:
OS TWITTER FILES BRAZIL E MUSK
On Wednesday (April 3), American journalist Michael Shellenberger published an alleged exchange of emails between employees of the legal sector of X in Brazil between 2020 and 2022 talking about requests and court orders received regarding content of their users.
The messages would show requests from various instances of the Brazilian Judiciary requesting personal data from users who used hashtags about the electoral process and content moderation.
Shellenberger specifically criticized STF (Supreme Federal Court) minister Alexandre de Moraes, criticizing him for “leading a case of widespread repression of freedom of expression in Brazil”.
According to him, Moraes issued decisions by the TSE (Superior Electoral Court) that “threaten democracy in Brazil” when asking for interventions in publications by members of the National Congress and personal account data – which would violate the platform’s guidelines. The records of the processes mentioned in the case are confidential.
The case was named Twitter Files Brasil in reference to the Twitter Files originally published in 2022, after Musk purchased X, in October of that year.
At the time, Musk delivered material to journalists that indicated how the social network, in the 2020 North American elections, collaborated with United States authorities to block users and suppress stories involving the son of the country’s presidential candidate Joe Biden.
The files published by journalists include email exchanges that reveal, to some extent, how Twitter reacted to requests from governments to intervene in the policy of publishing and removing content. In some cases, the social network ended up giving in.
In the Brazilian case, Musk was not indicated as the source who provided the material, however, the businessman criticized Moraes for a few days. Read the top comments:
Source: https://www.poder360.com.br/internacional/musk-chama-exigencias-citadas-pelo-twitter-files-de-draconianas/
