X Corp. CEO Elon Musk recently disclosed that the company was subject to an inquiry by the US House of Representatives, with the primary focus being on Musk’s concerns related to the apparent restriction of free speech in Brazil. The timing of this development is noteworthy, given that the announcement comes less than a week after Alexandre de Moraes, a Justice from the Brazil Supreme Court (STF), initiated a criminal inquiry into Musk on charges of incitement and obstruction of justice for defying a prior court order.
The court order in question had directed X Corp. (previously known as Twitter) to ban specific popular accounts in Brazil. The STF did not disclose the rationale behind the ban or specify any posts that violated Brazilian law. As per the order, X was explicitly forbidden from revealing the identities of the blocked accounts, though Musk later identified these accounts as belonging to sitting members of the Brazilian parliament and several journalists.
Justice Moraes’s investigation is targeted at combating “digital militias” that, according to him, propagate political misinformation on platforms like X Corp. Moraes contends that such actors leverage social media platforms and private messaging services to undermine Brazil’s democratic principles. He warned that the administrators of these platforms may be held criminally liable if they engage in or incite anti-democratic behaviour.
Musk, in response, criticised the actions of Moraes on his platform, arguing that they violate the will and law of the Brazilian people. He publicly called for Moraes to either resign or face impeachment. Musk went ahead and lifted the imposed bans on X Corp., outrightly defying a direct order from the STF. In his words:
“We are lifting all restrictions. This judge has applied massive fines, threatened to arrest our employees and cut off access to X in Brazil. As a result, we will probably lose all revenue in Brazil and have to shut down our office there. But principles matter more than profit.”
Following Musk’s defiance, Moraes imposed a daily fine of nearly $20,000 for violations of his order.
As of now, the US House of Representatives has not commented on its inquiry into the matter.
For more details, read the original article on Jurist.