Brazilian employees of X have been told that they need to be in a safe place and then Elon Musk will “do a full data dump” on the situation in Brazil. He posted that the X employees have been told that “they will be arrested” in the country.
The events follow Brazilian Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes taking steps to shut down popular accounts on the social media giant in the country and starting an inquiry into Musk for "obstruction of Justice" and "incitement to crime."
This is the latest escalation in the conflict between de Moraes and Musk as the government of the country has attempted to block popular X accounts.
X has also been threatened with a $20,000 fine per profile if the platform does not block the accounts in the country.
Musk posted on X Monday night, “We need to get our employees in Brazil to a safe place or otherwise not in a position of responsibility, then we will do a full data dump,” adding, “They have been told they will be arrested.”
The post was in response to Brazilian Federal Representative Nikolas Ferreira posting, “Elon said that Alexandre has Lula on a leash and that he put his finger on the scale to elect him. As a member of the Brazilian congress and representing millions of people, I ask you to give us more information. This will be crucial for the future of our country.”
On Sunday, Musk defied the orders from the court to block the accounts on the platform and posted, "Coming shortly, X will publish everything Alexandre de Moraes demanded by and how those requests violate Brazilian law. This judge has brazenly and repeatedly betrayed the constitution and people of Brazil. He should resign or be impeached."
Journalist Michael Shellenberger said in response, “Brazil is engaged in a sweeping crackdown on free speech led by a Supreme Court justice named Alexandre de Moraes.”
He added, "De Moraes has thrown people in jail without trial for things they posted on social media. He has demanded the removal of users from social media platforms. And he has required the censorship of specific posts, without giving users any right of appeal or even the right to see the evidence presented against them."
Shellenberger reported that de Moraes and the Superior Electoral Court previously demanded – when the platform was known as Twitter - the company to “reveal personal details about Twitter users who used hashtags he did not like” and give “access to Twitter’s internal data, in violation of Twitter policy.”
The Brazilian official also “sought to censor, unilaterally, Twitter posts by sitting members of Brazil’s Congress” and “weaponize Twitter’s content moderation policies against supporters of then-president Bolsonaro.”
Files obtained by the journalist showed “the origins of the Brazilian judiciary’s demand for sweeping censorship powers; the court’s use of censorship for anti-democratic election interference; and the birth of the Censorship Industrial Complex in Brazil.”
