Via online Newsletter International Intrigue
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| In the late hours of Saturday as you were fast asleep or deep in a Negroni haze, Elon Musk was closing shop on X’s Brazil offices, putting the blame squarely on one man – Brazilian supreme federal court judge, Alexandre de Moraes. |
| The Moraes-Musk feud, though, goes back months. And the judge’s quest to protect Brazil against what he deems “disinformation”, even further. |
| Here’s what happened. On Saturday, Musk’s team alleged Moraes had secretly threatened to arrest the firm’s legal rep in Brazil if X (née Twitter) didn’t comply with the judge’s orders from back in April. So Musk said he was closing his Brazilian office altogether, though local users can still tweet, like, and lurk away. |
| So… what happened back in April? Moraes, with whom Musk has sought to build bridges by nicknaming him “Brazil’s Darth Vader”, ordered X to block certain accounts accused of spreading disinformation and inciting hatred. |
| Those orders are typically sealed from public view (presumably to avoid the Streisand effect), but many of the accused tweeters are reportedly fans of Jair Bolsonaro, Brazil’s former president. |
| He’s the ex-leader accused of spreading disinformation about Brazil’s voting system, and inciting riots to disrupt the transfer of power after he lost an election. He denies all charges, which he says are political. But there’s a bit of a love-hate triangle here, too, because: |
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