Brazil Just Shut Down Musk— Why Hasn't Britain? Is The U.S. Prepared To If He Steps Out Of Line?

Context: Billionaires Shouldn't Exist

Brazil has the 7th biggest population in the world, right between two far less developed nations, Nigeria and Bangladesh. Brazil has more Twitter users, around 21.5 million, than Nigeria and Bangladesh, also more than any countries other than the U.S., Japan, India, Indonesia and the U.K. We’ll come back to the U.K. in a moment but what we need to know now is that Brazilian Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes ordered the suspension of Twitter as part of an on-going dispute with Elon Musk, who has been attempting to prove that he has more power than mere countries. “In his decision,” reported the Associated Press, de Moraes gave internet service providers and app stores five days to block access to Twitter, and said the platform will remain blocked until it complies with his orders. He also said people or companies who use virtual private networks, or VPNs, to access Twitter will be subject to daily fines of 50,000 reals ($8,900).”

“Musk,” wrote de Moraes, “showed his total disrespect for Brazilian sovereignty and, in particular, for the judiciary, setting himself up as a true supranational entity and immune to the laws of each country.”

AP reported that Twitter “has clashed with de Moraes over its reluctance to comply with orders to block users. Accounts that the platform previously has shut down on Brazilian orders include lawmakers affiliated with former President Jair Bolsonaro’s right-wing party and activists accused of undermining Brazilian democracy. Musk, a self-proclaimed ‘free speech absolutist,’ has repeatedly claimed the justice’s actions amount to censorship, and his argument has been echoed by Brazil’s political right. He has often insulted de Moraes on his platform, characterizing him as a dictator and tyrant. De Moraes’ defenders have said his actions aimed at Twitter have been lawful, supported by most of the court’s full bench and have served to protect democracy at a time in which it is imperiled. His order Friday is based on Brazilian law requiring foreign companies to have representation in the country so they can be notified when there are legal cases against them… Mariana de Souza Alves Lima, known by her handle MariMoon, showed her 1.4 million followers on Twitter that she would go to rival social network BlueSky, posting a screenshot and saying: ‘That is where I’m going.’”

Note: To Brazilian followers and everyone else, I’m also a BlueSky user and you can find me posting as downwithtyranny.bsky.social. It’s very hard to take Musk seriously as a free speech advocate when he constantly rigs Twitter to give the Trump campaign and right-wing Republicans advantages over normal people. Musk has been exposed as a fraud— and a weirdo.

Yesterday, Jack Nicas and Kate Conger reported that Musk has just tweeted “Free speech is the bedrock of democracy and an unelected pseudo-judge in Brazil is destroying it for political purposes… Moraes froze the finances of a second Musk business in Brazil, SpaceX's Starlink satellite-internet service, to try to collect $3 million in fines he has levied against Twitter. Starlink— which has recently exploded in popularity in Brazil, with more than 250,000 customers— said that it planned to fight the order and would make its service free in Brazil if necessary. Musk and Justice Moraes have been sparring for months. Musk says Justice Moraes is illegally censoring conservative voices. Justice Moraes says Musk is illegally obstructing his work to rid the Brazilian internet of hate speech and attacks on democracy.”

In his order, Justice Moraes said Musk was 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.”

Nicas and Conger wrote that Moraes “has ordered Twitter to remove at least 140 accounts, most of them right-wing, including some of Brazil's most prominent conservative pundits and members of Congress. Some of those accounts questioned Bolsonaro’s 2022 election loss and sympathized with the right-wing mob that stormed Brazil’s Congress and Supreme Court in a bid to provoke a military takeover of government. Justice Moraes has also led multiple criminal investigations into Bolsonaro and a ruling that deemed the former president ineligible to run in Brazil’s next presidential election. Those efforts have made Justice Moraes a hero of Brazil’s left— and the No. 1 enemy of Brazil’s right. Musk’s sudden entry into the debate in April, with a series of posts calling Justice Moraes a dictator, gave new life Bolsonaro’s right-wing movement. Bolsonaro lauded Musk at rallies and his supporters held signs thanking the tech mogul for coming to their rescue. Yet when Justice Moraes included Musk in an investigation into disinformation and began threatening Twitter with fines, the company sent a conciliatory letter that it would comply with the judge’s orders. Then, in recent weeks, Twitter stopped complying… Musk has used Twitter as a political cudgel. To his nearly 200 million followers, he has repeatedly boosted Trump and other right-wing leaders, like President Javier Milei of Argentina, while mocking politicians he opposes, such as Vice President Kamala Harris and President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva of Brazil.”

So… the U.K. I’m not saying that the pusillanimous prime minister should have had Musk shot, but I am saying there should be an Interpol arrest warrant out for him. And… the U.S. and the U.K. have a robust extradition treaty. And, Britain has not shut down Twitter, as they should have after Musk personally incited a series of violent right wing riots. I asked an old friend of mine, a Member of the House of Commons, why there has been no action taken against Musk, leaving aside Starmer’s gutlessness. A Labour member, he wasn’t offended by the characterization of his leader. “Government,” he said, “is being cautious about taking direct action against a high-profile figure like Musk due to primarily economic repercussions. Tesla and SpaceX, have significant global clout, and actions against him could have broader implications for UK-US relations and investments in the UK… In Brazil, the government's action against Musk was influenced by public pressure and media attention around his platform's role in spreading misinformation and harmful content. In the UK, while there is concern about Musk’s role in spreading divisive content, the level of public outcry and media focus hasn’t have reached the same intensity… so, reducing the urgency for governmental action. And… well, Starmer. I believe he’s more inclined to address the situation through comprehensive legislation and collaboration with tech companies to ensure compliance with our laws, rather than taking immediate, high-profile actions against Musk.”

Reporting for The Guardian last weekend, Caroline Cadwalladr warned that “inciting rioters in Britain was a test run for Elon Musk. Just see what he plans for America... [W]hile Kamala Harris is enjoying her hot girl summer and liberal America is sighing with relief, it’s to Britain that the US needs to look. To rioters in the streets and burning cars and contagious, uncontained racism spreading like wildfire across multiple platforms. To lies amplified and spread by algorithms long before the facts have been reported, laundered and whitewashed by politicians and professional media grifters. Because just as Brexit prefigured Donald Trump’s election in 2016, there are signs that we are again the canary in the coalmine. The same transatlantic patterns, the same playbook, the same figures. But this time with a whole new set of dangerous, unchecked technological vulnerabilities to be exploited. The streets are— for now— quiet. The violence has been crushed. But this is Britain, where extremist political violence is someone carrying a brick and throwing a chair leg. In America, there aren’t just automatic weapons and rights to openly carry firearms, there are actual militias. Regardless of how well Harris is doing in the polls, America is facing a singularly dangerous moment, whoever wins the election.”

In Britain, the canary has sung. This summer we have witnessed something new and unprecedented. The billionaire owner of a tech platform publicly confronting an elected leader and using his platform to undermine his authority and incite violence. Britain’s 2024 summer riots were Elon Musk’s trial balloon.

He got away with it. And if you’re not terrified by both the extraordinary supranational power of that and the potential consequences, you should be. If Musk chooses to “predict” a civil war in the States, what will that look like? If he chooses to contest an election result? If he decides that democracy is over-rated? This isn’t sci-fi. It’s literally three months away.

…[W]hat Musk— the new self-appointed Lord of Misrule— has done is to rip off the mask. He’s shown that you don’t even have to pretend to care. In Musk’s world, trust is mistrust and safety is censorship. His goal is chaos. And it’s coming.