A standoff between Elon Musk and Brazil escalated on Sunday when a Supreme Court judge opened an inquiry into the billionaire after Musk said he would reactivate accounts on the social media platform X that the judge had ordered blocked.

Musk, the owner of X and a self-declared free speech absolutist, has challenged a decision by Justice Alexandre de Moraes ordering the blocking of certain accounts. He has said X, formerly known as Twitter, would lift all the restrictions because they were unconstitutional and called on Moraes to resign.

Neither Musk, X nor Brazilian authorities have disclosed which social media accounts were ordered blocked. X first posted about the order to block on Saturday but it was not immediately clear when the order was issued.

Moraes is investigating “digital militias” that have been accused of spreading fake news and hate messages during the government of former far-right President Jair Bolsonaro and is also leading an investigation into an alleged coup attempt by Bolsonaro.

  • @Viking_HippieEnglish
    8•8 months ago

    The problem with fascists is that they are inherently bad actors in a democracy

    That’s my point: they will do their oppressive acts in bad faith no matter what, so not doing something positive due to that is all downside with no upside.

    If there’s not a law/precedent for them to twist, they’ll just make one or even pretend there is one. Meanwhile, limiting the spread of dangerous extremist propaganda DOES make a positive difference.

    The problem is that its not the fascist leader alone, but the proliferation of fascist ideals and sympathies in the population that leads to fascist uprisings

    Which is why combatting their propaganda is necessary and just.

    The goal should be to educate about what those are and why they’re bad and fallacious and provably wrong, not to play big brother like China.

    That makes perfect sense on the surface, but in reality, sufficiently intense and persistent propaganda can’t just be educated away.

    If someone has been told every day by every person they trust that LGBTQ+ people are inherently evil and want to convert and/or molest children, educating them about the fact that vulnerable minorities such as LGBTQ+ people are no more criminal than people in general and are in fact much more likely to be the VICTIMS of crime than anyone else won’t convince them.

    Like covid-19 or a Trump presidency, prevention is far more effective than education after infection when it comes to harmful propaganda.

      • @Viking_HippieEnglish
        1•8 months ago

        That’s going to happen regardless and as such is not a valid excuse to not do what is right.

        Taken to it’s logical conclusion, your approach would result in never legislating or regulations at all, since there’s no laws that the fascists won’t try to twist to their bad faith purposes.

        • @[email protected]English
          0•8 months ago

          So the solution is to take away one of their human rights? I just have to disagree and would argue this is your own authoritarian tendency winning over your leftist one. You’re allowing fear of the unknown to guide your decisions concerning human rights. Reminds me of some people in Germany that feared Jews.

          • @Viking_HippieEnglish
            1•8 months ago

            Free speech is a right. A platform to use to more effectively spread hateful and fraudulent speech isn’t.

            Your comparison between Nazis oppressing Jews and not actively encouraging Nazi rhetoric to flourish is not just wrong, it’s absolutely ridiculous and potentially dangerous.

            Perhaps this handy comic can help you understand why a free society should not give out megaphones to bigots who don’t want a free society:

            • @[email protected]English
              0•8 months ago

              You’re absolute missing Popper’s point with this infographic. He doesn’t say that anybody preaching intolerance should be jailed, he says specifically those that incite violence. Those that “answer arguments with fists and guns” not random rightists spouting bs on Twitter. If there’s a legitimate case against them for inciting violence, rebellion, etc, it should be done in an open court room, not behind closed doors and without criminal defense.

              You’re a clown and you’re supporting clownish shit in the name of fear.

              • @Viking_HippieEnglish
                1•8 months ago

                You’re a clown and you’re supporting clownish shit in the name of fear.

                Right back at you with your “any resistance to dangerous disinformation equals actual fascism” bullshit like a high school freshman who read about philosophy for the first time and now considers himself an expert on life, the universe, and everything 🙄