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Brazil Blocks X (apnews.com) 161

A longtime Slashdot reader writes: Regular Slashdot users will certainly be aware of the saga unfolding between the country of Brazil and X. Reuters has already reported that what I have to relay here will come as no surprise to Elon Musk, but reporting on CNN confirms that Brazilian Justice Alexandre de Moraes has ordered X to suspend operations in Brazil until X names a representative to appear on X's behalf in Brazilian Courts.

Is this the end of X or some brilliant Machiavellian ploy on the part of Elon Musk? Only time and the informed and spirited debate of the users here at /. can be sure.
Here's a recap of the saga, as told by X's Grok-2 chatbot: The Beginning: Alexandre de Moraes, a Brazilian Supreme Court Justice with a reputation for tackling misinformation, especially around elections, found himself at odds with Elon Musk, the space-faring, electric-car magnate turned social media mogul. The conflict kicked off when Moraes ordered X to block certain accounts in Brazil, part of his broader crackdown on what he deemed as misinformation.

The Escalation: Musk, never one to shy away from a fight, especially when it involves what he perceives as free speech issues, declared on X that he would not comply with Moraes' orders. This defiance wasn't just a tweet; it was a digital declaration of war. Musk accused Moraes of overstepping his bounds, betraying the constitution, and even likened him to Darth Vader in a less than flattering comparison. Moraes, not amused, opened an investigation into Musk for obstruction of justice, accusing him of inciting disobedience and disrespecting Brazil's sovereignty. The stakes were raised with fines of around $20,000 per day for each reactivated account, and threats of arresting X employees in Brazil.

The Drama Unfolds: The internet, as it does, had a field day. Posts on X ranged from Musk supporters calling Moraes a dictator to others backing Moraes, arguing he was defending democracy against foreign billionaires. The conflict became a global spectacle, with Musk's posts drawing international attention, comparing the situation to a battle for free speech versus censorship. Musk, in true Musk fashion, didn't just stop at defiance. He shared all of Moraes' demands publicly, suggesting users use VPNs, and even hinted at closing X's operations in Brazil, which eventually happened, citing the need to protect staff safety.

The Latest Chapter: Recently, X announced the closure of its operations in Brazil, a move seen as the culmination of this legal and ideological battle. Musk framed it as a stand against what he saw as an assault on free speech, while critics viewed it as an overreaction or a strategic retreat.

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Brazil Blocks X

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  • Lie All You Want (Score:4, Insightful)

    by bill_mcgonigle ( 4333 ) * on Friday August 30, 2024 @05:27PM (#64749876) Homepage Journal

    They don't care about lying or misinformation.

    They have Binnie, Assange, and Snowden locked away or exiled for telling the truth.

    "Malinformation" as they call it.

    The other social media centralized platforms have agreed to censor 'malinformation' for Brazil.

    That's why they're threatening their citizens if they use a VPN to access Twitter.

    This seems like a sign that their grip on power is extremely tenuous. A popular, just, and transparent government doesn't need any of this.

    • by Bobrick ( 5220289 ) on Friday August 30, 2024 @05:37PM (#64749898)
      Who's "they", Bill?
      • by shanen ( 462549 )

        I bet it's people that disagree with him.

        Brazil is an interesting case in point. Whatever is wrong with the country, I think it's hard not to trace it to various external sources. Most of them thinking about the money the way Musk thinks.

        As for the cesspool formerly known as Twitter, why does it continue to exist? I never figured out the point and nuked my account soon after Musk proved that it could actually become worse. Hard to believe that was possible. (Replacements? Looked at Mastodon and Bluesky, but

    • Comment removed (Score:5, Insightful)

      by account_deleted ( 4530225 ) on Friday August 30, 2024 @09:24PM (#64750284)
      Comment removed based on user account deletion
  • As always (Score:5, Insightful)

    by quonset ( 4839537 ) on Friday August 30, 2024 @05:33PM (#64749886)

    The "free speech" liar had no problem blocking accounts of opposition candidates in Turkey [imgur.com] when ordered to do so, even whining to someone who critizied the move that not doing so would mean shutting down in the entire country. You will note he explicitly says, "In response to legal process".

    And yet, here we are. Apparently where lies are concerned, the legal proces means nothing. That's where that pedo guy draws the line, not with censoring people.

    • Mod above up (Score:5, Informative)

      by skam240 ( 789197 ) on Friday August 30, 2024 @06:03PM (#64749952)

      Mod the above post up please. I have no mod points.

      Musk is happy to cater to all sorts of government censorship https://www.forbes.com/sites/k... [forbes.com] despite his utter nonsense claims of being a "free speech absolutist". Brazil's left wing government is some how a major problem for him though? Gee, I wonder why.

    • I have little doubt that Musk would have obeyed a similar edit from Bolansaro. So in wanting the ban lifted, I'm rooting for the people of Brazil to be able to access Twitter, more than applauding Musk's hypocrisy. But Musk's duplicity provides a chance for Bluesky, Threads, and the Fediverse to grow--which may be better for free speech overall.
  • by Bobrick ( 5220289 ) on Friday August 30, 2024 @05:35PM (#64749890)
    Weird how Grok fails to mention Musk's constant censorship of his detractors.
  • by MachineShedFred ( 621896 ) on Friday August 30, 2024 @05:37PM (#64749902) Journal

    Musk, never one to shy away from a fight, especially when it involves what he perceives as free speech issues

    Are you kidding me with this?

    Don't be a lazy asshole and copy-paste some AI garbage fawning over the guy who owns it as a recap to previous related events. I literally stopped reading when this hallucination came up.

    That "free speech warrior" is the same guy who marks NPR articles as spam, and bans accounts that tweet public-domain information that just so happens to be about him and his private jet travel.

    Fuck Musk, Fuck Twitter, Fuck his sycophantic AI.

    • Didn't he notably shy away from that fight with Zuckerberg?

    • Musk, never one to shy away from a fight, especially when it involves what he perceives as free speech issues

      Are you kidding me with this?

      Don't be a lazy asshole and copy-paste some AI garbage fawning over the guy who owns it as a recap to previous related events. I literally stopped reading when this hallucination came up.

      I dunno, I read "what he perceives as free speech issues" as meaning things that he thinks are free speech issues but really aren't. Or alternatively, he only perceives free speech issues when he agrees with what's being said.

    • Musk said he would fight Zuckerberg and then pussied out.

      “I offered a real date. [UFC president] Dana White offered to make this a legit competition for charity,” Zuckerberg posted on Threads, the Twitter rival whose creation started the beef in the first place.

      “Elon won’t confirm a date, then says he needs surgery, and now asks to do a practice round in my backyard instead,” he continued. “If Elon ever gets serious about a real date and official event, he knows how to re

    • by Rumagent ( 86695 )
      This. Musk doesn't want free speech. He wants a choir spouting the same racist shit he does. Imagine being the richest person in the world. Every option, every possibility open to you - and then you chose to be the king of the cesspool formerly known as Twitter.
  • "End of X?" "Brilliant Machiavellian ploy?"

    How about "tempest in a teapot"? How about "two deeply flawed, unlikable humans having a pissing match"?

    • Re:Uh, say what? (Score:4, Insightful)

      by Luckyo ( 1726890 ) on Friday August 30, 2024 @06:19PM (#64749986)

      Considering that the judge declared that SpaceX is to be cut off from being able to paid for its services in Brazil over this, and the fact that Starlink is one of the key reasons why remote locations across Brazil actually have emergency services of any functional kind at all, this depends on how much you think human lives are worth.

      If you think they're worthless, then this is indeed a tempest in a teapot. And if you think building up such novel services makes someone "deeply flawed and unlikable", may I suggest that this says nothing about the person in question, but it says a lot about what you have to see in the mirror daily?

      • *Citation needed.

      • by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

        If you provide a valuable service, the law doesn't apply to you?

        The fault lies entirely with Elon Musk.

      • Musk is associated with wonderful things, but the more we learn about Musk, the less he looks like a genius. Starlink is a good product and so are Teslas. However, once the detals leaked about his leadership, you can see Musk was not the magic element. He clearly has no idea how to run an engineering organization looking at the public missteps when he took over twitter. There's the external facing ones, like the blue checkmark and having no clue how to monetize it, but there's also verified leaked detai
      • by skam240 ( 789197 )

        And if you think building up such novel services makes someone "deeply flawed and unlikable", may I suggest that this says nothing about the person in question, but it says a lot about what you have to see in the mirror daily?

        No, that phrase there says everything about you though. Of course no one dislikes Musk for that specific reason, they dislike him for a ton of other reasons though. Things like his far right beliefs and his blatant hypocrisy (as illustrated in this story here) are a good start in understanding why a lot of people don't like him.

        You though, you'll make up any kind of negative characterization you can to make anyone you disagree with look bad.

    • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

      Comment removed based on user account deletion
      • by Rei ( 128717 )

        It's amazing that people are trying to turn this into a free speech issue. As if "promoting a coup" is "free speech".

        Brazil literally had a (very bungled) coup attempt, organized on social media. OMG, stop the presses, it's not legal in Brazil to try to start a coup!

  • Good for Brazil (Score:3, Insightful)

    by rsilvergun ( 571051 ) on Friday August 30, 2024 @05:56PM (#64749942)
    At the moment if you click on a link to NPR on Twitter you get a message telling you the website you're going to is known for misinformation. NPR. Whether you like or dislike NPRs commentary they are well-known for journalistic integrity. Mostly they quote AP articles. Sinclair Media they're not.

    Twitter has become a cesspool of Neo-Nazis and porn bots. It's surviving entirely on inertia alone at this point and it's an active threat to any democracy that hosts it.

    This isn't to say I think the United States should shut down Twitter. The blowback from that would not be worth it. But it means you should stop using it as soon as possible. Installing ad block if you're going to use it at all so at least they're not getting revenue from you. Maybe use a VPN so they can't track you and sell your data. If you absolutely have to use it at least be a leech that costs them money
    • NPR and journalistic integrity in the same sentence?

      Uri Berliner might have something to say about that. [npr.org]

      Of course, they fired him.

    • "...click on a link to NPR on Twitter you get a message telling you the website you're going to is known for misinformation."

      Rsilvergun is, as often is the case, lying. I, at least, see no such "warning". I think there was a community note on the Arlington case that there are several examples of Biden being photographed by White House and other non-Arlington photographers which have been used in political contexts as well, that nobody seemed to get upset about. Different rules, I guess.

      https://t.co/tc07 [t.co]

  • by twocows ( 1216842 ) on Friday August 30, 2024 @09:07PM (#64750270)
    Musk only seems to care about the freedom of speech he agrees with. This is a popular position to take on both sides but that doesn't excuse him doing it. He also has a few really stupid ideas and is one of those people who is utterly convinced he is right about everything because he made some admittedly good decisions in the past. I agree with him at times but overall I don't particularly care for him.
    With that said, I still don't like this. While I think X is a pretty awful place to discuss things, a lot of people clearly care about discussing stuff there and I think it's important that they be able to. I think any reduction of the spaces people have to discuss things that matter to them is a net negative for society. I think the Brazilian government would be morally wrong to block the website for pretty much any reason. And while I don't know a lot about the backstory, if Musk's claims of them requesting censorship are to be believed, that's a particularly bad reason for it.

    I don't particularly empathize with Musk, I don't care when bad things happen to him, but I do care that some Brazilians will lose access to a space to discuss things they care about. I think that's bad, even if I don't think Musk is the champion of free speech he claims to be.
  • Would really like it if that cesspool of hate and racism could be closed here as well (Denmark). I used to admire Musk.
  • Not an overreaction (Score:4, Interesting)

    by vbdasc ( 146051 ) on Saturday August 31, 2024 @02:15AM (#64750578)

    Well, the judge threatened to arrest X employees, so X ceasing all operations in Brazil is certainly not an overreaction. This is certainly a d!ck move by the judge, and Musk has no reason to think that Brazil courts operate by the highest standards of justice. Oops, seems that I shouldn't be visiting Brazil any time soon, lest they arrest me too.

    I'm not a Musk fan at all, but in this debacle, he seems the less wrong side.

    • Itâ(TM)s not a dick move by the judge. If a company refuses to comply with a court order there are consequences. If you are in the unfortunate situation of being an employee of the company, you quit or risk jail time, That would be the same in the USA or in the EU.
  • a violin, still tiny, and tinny, but with enough room for a popcorn holder?
  • There is a court order signed by a legitimate Brazilian judge, and a weirdo man child throwing his toys out of the pram. The court order wins. The judge can send bailiffs, police and army if needed to enforce the court order. And he is going after musk personally, which includes musk owned companies.
  • Story seems a rich target, yet no jokes?

    • Now, byronivs was a very busy body. "Who will establish the set up?" "Not I" said shanen. "Then, I will," said byronivs. Byronivs spent the morning scratching and clawing existential humor from the simulation and noticed the setup was ripe for a punchline. "Who will crack wise?" "Not I," said shanen, "I demand...macaroni pictures."

      • by shanen ( 462549 )

        Well, I'm missing the joke again, but I don't associate the handle with Funny, for whatever that's worth. I'll check the main "Funny" tab to check for tardy jokes. (Should be a Dr Who joke lurking somewhere in there?)

    • well there must be one there somewhere about Brazil nuts, but the hard part is deciding who is the nut,
      • by shanen ( 462549 )

        Interesting angle I hadn't thought of, but just checked the Funny tab again and still nothing.

        But now I'm wondering if this story might be related to a large increase in Bluesky users over the last few days.

  • Not really, I just wanted to use that pun. Musk is though.

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