Since purchasing Twitter, the social media platform he subsequently renamed X, in 2022, billionaire Elon Musk has come under fire for his endorsement of expanded free speech protections by users.
A number of U.S. lawmakers and regulators have complained that X has become a bastion of hate speech and misinformation, though Musk has rejected such allegations at every turn.
Hate speech impressions (# of times tweet was viewed) continue to decline, despite significant user growth!
@TwitterSafety will publish data weekly.
Freedom of speech doesn’t mean freedom of reach. Negativity should & will get less reach than positivity. pic.twitter.com/36zl29rCSM
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) December 2, 2022
He and the company have also faced significant backlash globally, including in Brazil, where the nation’s Supreme Court has ruled that platform must deactivate certain accounts or face fines equivalent to nearly $20,000 per day.
Musk, who has called for Brazilian Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes to either “resign or be impeached,” is now openly flouting the high court’s order.
Placing the ruling among “the most draconian demands of any country on Earth,” he recently asserted that he plans to make all of the judge’s demands public when he determines it is safe to do so.
Asserting that X employees in Brazil “have been told they will be arrested,” Musk explained that his priority is to get “them to a safe place or otherwise not in a position of responsibility,” at which time he will authorize “a full data dump” of the justice’s demands.
In a separate social media post tagging the justice directly, he wrote: “Coming shortly, X will publish everything demanded by [de Moraes] and how those requests violate Brazilian law. This judge has brazenly and repeatedly betrayed the constitution and people of Brazil.”
The international feud has resulted in de Moraes’ decision to launch an investigation into Musk over allegations that he participated in a conspiracy to spread misinformation about the Brazilian Supreme Court.
“The flagrant conduct of obstruction of Brazilian justice, incitement of crime, the public threat of disobedience of court orders and future lack of cooperation from the platform are facts that disrespect the sovereignty of Brazil,” the judge wrote in a statement released on Sunday.
Former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, who has also been subject to investigations by the current administration, has touted Musk’s influence on the country.
“Our freedom today is largely in his hands,” Bolsonaro said earlier this week. “The action he’s taking, what he’s been saying and he hasn’t been intimidated and has said that he’s going to put forward this idea of fighting for freedom for our country. That’s good.”
