The fight between Elon Musk and Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes has entered unchartered waters. According to a post on X, Brazil’s bar and NOVO party have filed to overturn Moraes’ X ban in the country.
Mario Nawfal, a citizen journalist on X, says, “You know you’ve gone too far as a Justice when the Nation’s Bar Association goes after you.”
As reported, the OAB (Brazilian Bar Association) and the Novo Party have asked Supreme Court Justice Nunes Marques to overturn Alexandre de Moraes’ decision to suspend X, which was supported by the 1st Panel.
They have filed an ADPF (Arguição de Descumprimento de Preceito Fundamental), a judicial action used in Brazil’s Supreme Court to address the violation of fundamental constitutional principles. They are asking for urgent action to repeal the ban or scrap fines for VPN users, which experts deem “unenforceable.”
This move could strike down Moraes’ X ban and even affect his Starlink verdict. To that end, Elon Musk simply said, “Bravo!”
Brazil catches global attention for censorship
Following the current ruling, millions of people around the world have turned their VPNs to Brazil to mess with the Brazilian authorities.
At the start of September, all 5 judges on a Supreme Court panel voted to uphold a ban on X in Brazil. The ban, which went into effect during the weekend, was ordered by Moraes after the company missed a court-imposed deadline to name a legal representative in the South American country.
Moraes’s original ruling, which was released on Friday, had called Elon Musk an “outlaw” who intended to “allow the massive spread of disinformation, hate speech and attacks on the democratic rule of law, violating the free choice of the electorate, by keeping voters away from real and accurate information.”
Since the ban, Elon Musk has been very vocal on X calling for the freedom of speech to be given back to the people of Brazil.
This week, Moraes was accused of censoring the social media accounts of everyday Brazilians. Critics argue that Moraes’s actions, purportedly to protect democracy, contradict democratic principles by silencing one side of the political debate.
To that end, Elon Musk adds, “Moraes was demanding that 𝕏 take actions that are illegal under Brazilian law and be silent about it. If that is not extreme corruption, what is?”
As of today, X remains the number one news app in Brazil, even after five days of suspension. Despite the Supreme Court’s fine over VPN use, the people of Brazil refuse to back down in defending free speech.
There has been a conversation about freedom of speech in Brazil. Many mainstream media houses, such as Bloomberg and The Washington Post, have called into question judicial supremacy in the country.
