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Amid Brazil’s battle to muzzle Musk’s X, Elon eyes tech triumph in free-speech wars
New York Post ^ | Sep. 19, 2024 | Glenn H. Reynolds

Posted on 09/22/2024 6:14:04 AM PDT by george76

The X account of Elon Musk in seen blocked on a mobile screen in this illustration after Brazil's telecommunications regulator suspended access to Elon Musk's X social network in the country.

Can’t stop the signal,” a famous line from the movie “Serenity”, has become something of a catchphase among geeks — meaning that messages of truth cannot be contained.

But stopping the signal is exactly what a lot of governments are trying to do these days, with mixed but depressing results.

Under Article 19 of the UN’s Universal Declaration of Human Rights, “Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom . . . to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers.”

...

Brazil’s socialist president Lula da Silva and its activist Supreme Court have been trying to force Musk’s X (formerly Twitter) to censor content that favors Lula’s opponent, former President Jair Bolsonaro.

...

X remains blocked in Brazil, and a Brazilian court seized money damages not only from X, but also from Starlink, a company in which Musk is a minority shareholder.

Britain’s Guardian called this move “a first among non-autocratic nations.”

Well, for some values of “non-autocratic”

. . .

Forcing X to censor content has been called “protecting democracy,” when of course it’s anything but.

(Excerpt) Read more at nypost.com ...


TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; Foreign Affairs; Government; News/Current Events; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: brazil; elon; elonmusk; freedom; freespeech; freespeechwars; musk; speech; wars; x

1 posted on 09/22/2024 6:14:04 AM PDT by george76
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To: george76

“The only way to make a bad idea seem like a good idea is to silence the good idea that shows just how bad the bad idea really is” L.Star


2 posted on 09/22/2024 6:22:49 AM PDT by Qwapisking ("IF the Second goes first the First goes second" L.Star)
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To: george76
The dissident tracts which enraged the National Socialists and the Samizdat which circulated under Soviet Socialism are but two of many examples in which one's opinion and one's access to truths have always won out. The entities which have always lost over time are the various forms of authoritarianism. Today's authoritarians differ from their fore-bearers only by degree. Truth will out. Always.
3 posted on 09/22/2024 6:36:42 AM PDT by Worldtraveler once upon a time (Degrow government)
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To: george76

The US Deep State is deeply involved in this effort in Brazil.


4 posted on 09/22/2024 6:57:58 AM PDT by Paladin2
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