The Washington Post, a frequent and harsh critic of Elon Musk, has criticized the Brazilian government for moving to ban X, a social media platform owned by the tech billionaire.
“The billionaire CEO of Tesla and SpaceX rightly said a Brazilian judge's move to unilaterally ban his company from operating in the country was an attack on internet speech around the world.” In an editorial, the Post wrote:“In this battle for free speech, Musk's X stands in the right place.”
A Brazilian judge ordered an “immediate and complete suspension” of the social media platform until it complies with all court orders and pays existing fines.
Another Musk company, Starlink, is also facing a legal battle over its survival in Brazil after a Brazilian Supreme Court judge ordered the freezing of Starlink's financial accounts in the country.
The move by Brazilian Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes to shut down X came at a “great cost to freedom of expression,” the Post said, adding that “exclusion orders and even arrest warrants were often issued in secret and with little supporting evidence.”
“The latest move against X is more of the same, and simply more. A judge has threatened to arrest the company's legal representatives in Brazil after X ignored a court order to freeze more than 140 accounts,” the paper said.
As a result, Musk's team left the country, and the situation in Brazil worsened: “With no physical presence, Moraes ordered that X be blocked for all 220 million Brazilians. Anyone who tries to circumvent the restrictions could be fined around $9,000 a day, Moraes said,” the Post reported.
“If this sounds authoritarian, it is,” the paper said. “Whatever threat to democracy posed by the accounts Moraes was seeking to remove, the threat posed by a single government official restricting the speech of 220 million people is greater.”
“Coupled with Moraes' choice to freeze the assets of internet provider Starlink, another “For Musk's company, the move aligns Brazil not with the free world but with countries like China and Russia,” the Post wrote.
The paper's defense of Musk comes after he was the target of regular criticism from The Washington Post, which repeatedly attacked him during his 2022 attempt to take ownership of what was then Twitter Inc.
Last month, a Washington Post reporter suggested the Biden administration should censor “misinformation” from an interview Musk was scheduled to have with former President Trump.
Fox Business' Stephanie Price contributed to this report.
