Brazil Fines X, Starlink Over Brief X Restoration
Brazil Fines Musk'sX, CompaniesStarlink Over Brief X ReinstallmentRestoration
The Facts
Brazilian Supreme Court justice Alexandre de Moraes on Thursday imposed a nearly $1M daily fine on two of Elon Musk's companies, social media platform X and satellite internet company Starlink, due to a brief reinstallment of X in the country.Brazilian Supreme Court justice Alexandre de Moraes on Thursday imposed a $920K daily fine on two of Elon Musk's companies, social media platform X, formerly Twitter, and satellite internet company Starlink, due to a brief restoration of X in the country.
X had been banned in Brazil by de Moraes over what he described as the spread of misinformation and hate speech, as well as the company's previous refusal to pay a $3M fine and appoint a legal representative in the country.X had been banned in Brazil by de Moraes over what he described as the spread of misinformation and hate speech, as well as the company's previous refusal to pay over $3M in fines and appoint a legal representative in the country.
The Spin
If Musk wasn'thas abeen hypocrite,known evidencedfor byremoving his removal of content in some countries while allowing hate speech to flourish in others, de Moraes would have no ground to stand on. But since he is, itIt's understandable for a sovereign government to request the removal of certain content. When you add Starlink into the mix, which is directly tied to military operations, the government is also justified in not wanting aMusk rogueto billionairehave doingleverage whateverover heBrazilian wantsnational withinsecurity Brazilian territoryaffairs.
While Musk mayaspires notto bethe applyingchallenge hisof free speech absolutism, perfectlyand everywhere, he's doingparticularly moreeffective thanin anyonefacilitating elsepositive change in countries that are supposedsupposedly to be Democraticdemocratic. On the flip side, Judge de Moraes, a man whose tyranical history includesis plotting to kidnap journalistscheckered, is pretendingactually tocausing defenddemocratic Democracy as he burns its core tenets to the groundbacksliding. Thankfully, de Moraes has no power over Starlink satellites, which will hopefully soon provide uncensored internet to all Brazilians.
