Musk calls for ouster of Brazil Supreme Court judge

RIO DE JANEIRO, April 8 — X owner Elon Musk yesterday called for the resignation or removal of a Brazilian Supreme Court justice whom the billionaire entrepreneur accused of censorship for blocking accounts suspected of spreading disinformation.

“This judge has brazenly and repeatedly betrayed the constitution and people of Brazil. He should resign or be impeached,” Tesla and SpaceX boss Musk said of Alexandre de Moraes.

Beginning Saturday evening, Musk took to X, the platform formerly known as Twitter which he purchased in 2022, to launch a series of attacks against the justice.

As a result of Moraes threatening to “cut off access” to the platform, “we will probably lose all revenue in Brazil and have to shut down our office there,” Musk posted.

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“But principles matter more than profit.”

A divisive judicial figure — tyrannical to some and a fervent defender of democracy to others — Moraes is one of the 11 members on Brazil’s high court. He also presides over the country’s Superior Electoral Tribunal, or TSE.

Critics, now including Musk, have said Moraes is part of a sweeping crackdown against free speech in Brazil.

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Moraes has spearheaded the battle against disinformation in Brazil. In recent years he has ordered the blocking of accounts of influential figures on social networks, most of them supporters of Jair Bolsonaro.

In 2023 the far-right former president was declared ineligible to run for office by the Moraes-led TSE, for disseminating false information about Brazil’s electoral system.

Bolsonaro is also being investigated over an attempted coup to prevent his 2022 electoral defeat against the current leftist president, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, after a crowd of Bolsonaro supporters stormed the headquarters of the country’s three branches of power in Brasilia. — AFP