Why Brazil Supreme Court Judge Morais is taking on Elon Musk
By Guardian- Michael Safi/Tom Phillips/Lucy Hough/Rudi Zygadlo/Elizabeth Cassin-Thu 12 Sep 2024 03.00 BST
The Guardian’s Latin America correspondent, Tom Phillips, tells Michael Safi how Elon Musk ended up in a feud with Supreme Court Judge Morais
What does the feud between Elon Musk and Brazil’s supreme court mean for X and Starlink users in the country? Tom Phillips reports
“One Saturday morning at the end of August, I wake up here in Rio, look at my phone, and for the first time since I lived in China, where I was correspondent before I came here, I look at my phone and Twitter doesn’t work.”One Saturday morning at the end of August, I wake up here in Rio, look at my phone,
“One Saturday morning at the end of August, I wake up here in Rio, look at my phone, and for the first time since I lived in China, where I was correspondent before I came here, I look at my phone and Twitter doesn’t work.”
Brazil’s supreme court has banned X, formally known as Twitter, in response to Musk’s refusal to obey court orders requiring the removal of X profiles accused of spreading disinformation and for not naming a local legal representative.
“Musk decided not to comply with Brazilian legislation,” Phillips says. “He decided not to comply with that deadline, and therefore X was blocked. So it was a very dramatic turn of events.”
What could the dispute mean for Brazilians who rely on Musk-owned Starlink devices for internet connection?
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Editors Notes.
Rule of Law shoud Never interfer with Government Politics
Law and politics create their own particular pictures of reality. Sometimes those pictures overlap, sometimes they differ. Yet, there is something that the law should never include in its sphere; namely, the differentiation of adversaries according to a purely political criterion. This leads to a strict separation between "ours" and "yours", or, in its most radical expression, to a strict separation between friend and enemy. When the latter occurs, politics inevitably prevails over the law, and reduces or damages the autonomy of the rule of law.
THE FREEDOM OF SPEECH MUST NEVER BE QUELLED!
