Posted on 09/01/2024 6:12:55 AM PDT by MtnClimber
X, the social-media giant owned by Elon Musk, has officially been banned in Brazil. Last night, X failed to meet a deadline set by a Supreme Court judge to block vast swathes of content and appoint a local legal representative for the company. It has now gone offline to its 22million Brazilian users – roughly one tenth of the national population.
The Brazilian elites loathe X for precisely the same reason as the elites across the rest of the democratic world do – they blame it for the spread of so-called disinformation, particularly since it was taken over by Musk and its content-moderation policies were relaxed. Just as disinformation has been blamed for Brexit in the UK and Trump’s election in the US, it is blamed in Brazil for the 2018 election of right-wing firebrand Jair Bolsonaro – and especially for his supporters’ storming of the Brazilian congress in 2023 after he failed to win re-election (a kind of ‘January 6’ tribute act). Essentially, elites believe that fake news, by boosting populist movements, poses a direct challenge to their rule.
The censorship orders from judge Alexandre de Moraes, which X and Musk refused to comply with, make this all too clear. While Moraes claims he is merely trying to tackle disinformation, hate speech or what he calls ‘digital militias’ (those users promoting content that supposedly undermines democracy or the rule of law), his demands are nakedly political. As the New York Times reports, X was ordered to ban over 140 accounts, among them some of Brazil’s most prominent right-wing pundits and even elected members of congress. X has refused to comply as it says these takedown orders are themselves illegal and unconstitutional.
Tensions between Moraes and X erupted into the open back in April, when Musk publicly branded Moraes a ‘dictator’. But rows had been brewing behind the scenes, even before Musk took over what was then Twitter and rebranded it as a ‘free speech’ platform. As the Twitter Files reveal, between 2020 and 2022, Twitter’s legal counsel continually pushed back privately against requests for content to be removed and for data from anonymous users to be handed over to the state, noting that many of these requests were ‘illegal’, and not to mention ‘political’, in their blatant targeting of supporters of Bolsonaro.
Moraes’s moves against X are unprecedented in a democratic country. Banning or suspending an entire social-media platform is usually unheard of outside of despotic regimes. Indeed, in blocking access to X, Brazil now joins an ignoble list of authoritarian nations, including China, Iran, Russia and North Korea, that have done the same.
SNIP
HOW MANY STARLINK SATELLITES ARE OVER THE EU TERRITORY???
I took it to mean That since there are currently so many outlets most people will not recognize this for the threat it is.
Until they are coming after the last one or two.
But by then it will be too late.
State free speech rights under state constitutions allow for punishment after speaking/publishing as far as I’ve checked.
The Amendment I of the federal constitution does not envision punishment for free speech. If you yell fire falsely in a DC theater expect to get punished, however.
There is no Free World.
Unfortunately, Musk is very vulnerable to government pressure.
He should add to X what he wants and then spin off the personal communication aspects of X.
I tend to think software graphic-based encryption is the way to go.
Ordinary text say such as best-selling novel and ordinary-looking pictures might together carry a message that special software could decrypt. Each ‘word’ of that message might be a scrambled English word.
Messages can be written in concrete using sugar water. This will get moldy and a message will appear.
There’s always the old fashion way of doing things, such as taping a massage to a quarter.
The quarter can be thrown on a lawn or placed on a store shelf or in a product box at a Walmart or home improvement store.
Hands should be washed first.
All the more reason to elect a Conservative majority in both houses to support President Trump to reestablish free speech and end lawfare.
This is a lot worse than a simple “crackdown on free speech”.
This is fulfillment of Orwell’s vision that the Party can change the meaning of 2+2 at will, and that the people’s minds will have been so damaged by the Telescreen that they will believe it.
The only thing he got wrong - he believed that most people would have a Telescreen that could not be turned off. Even Orwell didn’t imagine that people would willingly turn it on.
“Elon needs”
to set up his own country.
There are nations that need cash.
Dear EU:
Elon is offering us $12 billion. Will you do better?
Dear Poorland:
How do we know he’s offering you $12 billion?
Dear EU:
You don’t. But can you afford to take a chance on him blocking your attempt at world domination?
Yes. This is an attempt to control what people believe.
Just like the Nazis clamping down on people listening to foreign broadcasts.
Dictators can’t abide free speech.
They need the Ceausescu treatment, line them up against a wall.
Perhaps I am naive or uninformed, but it seems to me that centuries of national borders, regulated travel (and supposedly immigration) and regulated trade have been replaced, overnight, by this so-called “World Wide Web”. China is the only country I am aware of trying to enforce national boundaries on the Internet.
Of course, I decry the censorship and government control of communication, but I am not surprised, at all, by the effort to enforce national boundaries on computer information traffic. I am more surprised that this was not the case, from the get-go.
No but if you need help I’m here for you. Social media today v. half a dozen channels and a newspaper or two, a few decades ago. Everyone’s talking now, and everyone’s listening. Expect governments everywhere to whittle it down, starting with “misinformation” as defined by them. All those words, who’ll miss them if they’re squelched?
Who buys a newspaper anymore? So much info, the price is infinitesimal now.
It’s a lot like being an individual in China. One in 1.5B. Life’s cheap. If you don’t serve the government’s purpose, who will miss you if you’re erased?
"Whittle"? Carve out small slices?
No, expect the giant boot of government to come down squarely on our necks. It will be top down censorship. Durov, Musk...Brazil, UK, France, EU and if Kamala wins, then here in the US. It would be quick, regardless of how many people are talking and listening, "now".
All those words, who’ll miss them if they’re squelched?
Sarcasm?
Not technically sarcasm, but rhetorical.
I do believe the current assault on free speech would not be happening without TikTok, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and the rest of the panoply of 21st c communication.
My generation is the first to type with thumbs and it shows in the content and the widespread indifference to abstract ideas. Most care only that you don’t type something mean, and they “feel” that if you do that, you deserve to forfeit your platform. They don’t value speech per se, because the supply of it is now apparently inexhaustible.
Ask around. Ask a college student, “Choose one, would you rather see speech protected, or people protected from speech?”
Machiavelli also saw things as they are rather than as they ought to be, so I’m in good company.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.