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X to close operations in Brazil 'effective immediately'
(www.reuters.com)
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this post was submitted on 17 Aug 2024
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Wait so what do they mean by stopping operations in Brazil then? Just the offices and staff? The article isn't super clear on it
They're just shutting down their local offices in Brazil, which are primarily used to represent X legally.
This is happening because a Supreme Court judge is conducting an inquiry to persecute those he deems propagators of fake news. In most legal systems, it would be considered highly illegal for a judge to conduct an investigative inquiry. It is also illegal in Brazil, but the other members of Supreme Court authorized this inquiry ("in the name of democracy") and turned a blind eye for all its absurd consequences.
This judge doesn't need the prosecutor's office or any private individual to initiate the proceedings. The scope of this inquiry is very broad (fake news as a whole) and has no expiration date, making it potentially eternal. In some cases, he himself is supposedly a victim of fake news, which means this judge potentially occupies three roles: judge, prosecutor, and victim. As a result, ordinary citizens in Brazil can be "summoned" to the Supreme Court's jurisdiction immediately if the accusations are connected to this Fake News inquiry. Since the Supreme Court is the final jurisdiction for appeals, people unfortunate enough to get caught in this arbitrariness lose the right to appeal the decisions of a judge that is also the de facto prosecutor.
A few days ago, there were some leaks showing this judge's assistants being asked to write reports against some individuals and news organizations that the judge wants to prosecute. In one instance, where there was no wrongdoing to report about a certain right-wing newspaper, the judge replied to his assistant: "Just look for some spicy allegations and be creative". So this judge is using his superpowers to direct the investigation to serve his own ends, which mostly involves silencing critics of the Supreme Court and himself.
His most recent power trip involves sending secret orders to X's Brazilian legal offices, demanding some accounts be blocked, and asking for all information related to these accounts. The judge stipuled daily fines for disobedience. But X's Brazilian workers don't have direct control of which accounts are blocked or not, so they tried to appeal to the full Supreme Court judges (which so far has not responded), and no account was blocked or doxxed. The judge then raised the daily fines further and threatened to jail X's chief lawyer in Brazil, even though this lawyer has no control over what happens to X's accounts. It's as if he were threatening to arrest a lawyer for the supposed crimes of his client. To protect these workers from unfair arrests, Elon Musk laid off all workers from X's local offices in Brazil, effectively closing all operations in the country.
The site and the app will continue working until the judge comes up with some bullshit reason to order all Brazilian ISPs to block access to X's servers.
Protection of citizens against unjust ruling by a court is a protection-principle of democrary.
Why would you grant such a protection to an organisation aimed to destroy democracy (X/twitter)?
Is being a pro-free speech platform anti-democratic?
If you're trying to say that some of X's users are "threatening democracy," there are already laws in Brazil to address this without resorting to illegality.
The law states that platforms are only required to remove content by a court order, and the content to be removed must be specified. The Supreme Court judge I referred to earlier was blocking entire accounts, which amounts to "preventive censorship," clearly prohibited by the Brazilian Constitution.
Moreover, this judge created a parallel judicial system where he denies citizens the right to be tried by their local judges: the process goes directly to his desk, and he acts as both prosecutor and judge simultaneously. It's a gross violation of the principle of due process.
One of the basic elements of a democracy are three branches. In fact, democracy is an inherent instable system where these three branches must keep eachother in check. A natural concequence thereof is that every one of these three branches has the right to conduct and lead investigations.
That the courts can act proactive or reactive is more a cultural element then a core element of democracy. There are quite some countries where judges are part of the investigative process and can unilateral.
As Brazil, as a number of other countries in Latin America, has been in the situation in the past that both the gouvernement and the parlement are controlled by people with a .. euh .. not so good reputation on their democratic values, a judicial branch that acts in a more proactive manner should not be that IMHO unexptected.
Here there are two issues: free speech and the judicial system in Brasil. I'll reply to the later in a different mail.
The freedom of speech is the result of democracy. No democracy, no freedom of speech. It is also inherent part of the democractic process.
On the other hand, it is not the only element of a democracy. and it can also be used against these other elements?
My question to you: can you use a fundamental freedom, granted to you by the fact you line in a democracy, to attack democracy?