MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Brazil's STF panel upholds De Moraes' decisions against X

Musk said he would seek to confiscate Brazilian assets elsewhere in retaliation

Brazil's Supreme Federal Court (STF) unanimously backed case rapporteur Alexandre De Moraes' decision to suspend X from South America's largest country. The five members of the STF's First Chamber voted virtually and concurrently to uphold De Moraes' ruling to shut down the social network X in the country.

In his vote, Justice Flávio Dino agreed that Brazil's sovereignty needed to be defended. He underlined that X owner Elon Musk's “economic power and the size of [his] bank account do not give rise to a strange immunity from jurisdiction.”

“Our nation's regulatory framework excludes any foreign imposition, and it is Brazil's courts, with the STF as their apex body, that set the interpretation of the laws in force here,” Dino also said.

“I understand that the measures ordered in these files are aimed at satisfying the decisions issued by the Federal Supreme Court, systematically breached by the company, and, consequently, the preservation of the very dignity of Justice,” explained former President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva's defender Cristiano Zanin.

“Repeated non-compliance with STF decisions is extremely serious for any citizen or public or private legal entity. No one can intend to carry out their activities in Brazil without observing the laws and the Constitution,” he also pointed out.

According to Justice Cármen Lúcia, “Brazil is not a place of ideologies without ideas of justice, where private interests can prosper wrapped in the crepe paper of shiny screens without commitment to the Law” but rather “a society of more than 200 million inhabitants who desire civilization and civility, freedom and responsibility, personal and legal security.”

“It is not with bravado that the democratic rule of law is built, but with laws that are respected for the liberation of peoples and nations,” she added.

Although voting in the same sense, Justice Luiz Fux noted he had some dissenting points. In his view, the STF's decision should not indiscriminately affect people or companies not involved in “manifestations prohibited by the constitutional order, such as expressions revealing racism, fascism, Nazism, obstructing criminal investigations or incitement to crimes in general.” However, he reckoned that X had been suspended for failing to comply with court decisions.

In response, Musk, who had first targeted only De Moraes, now extended his diatribe to the entire country. “I hope Lula likes flying commercial aircraft,” Musk wrote on X with regards to the seizing Monday by US authorities of Venezuelan ruler Nicolás Maduro's presidential aircraft in the Dominican Republic to enforce Washington's sanctions against Caracas.

“Unless the Brazilian government returns the illegally confiscated assets of X and SpaceX, we will seek reciprocal confiscation of government assets as well,” Musk stressed given De Moraes' imposing a series of fines against X and freezing SpaceX's accounts to collect them. He had already specified that he was not the sole owner of Starlink's mother company and, therefore, the decision by the “evil dictators in a judge's robe” affected the assets of other stockholders in no way connected to the social media platform.

The South African-born tycoon reiterated his view that De Moraes “deserves to go to jail for his crimes,” while echoing Brazilian rightwing influencer Mario Nawfal's posting that the people would flock onto Paulista Avenue in the city of Sao Paulo during the Sept. 7 Independence Day celebrations to seek the magistrate's impeachment.

According to Brasil de Fato, X must now appeal the STF's Monday ruling, most likely on the grounds that X's ban affects freedom of expression and is disproportionate given that a decision targeting seven supporters of former President Jair Bolsonaro ended up impacting the platform's 22 million users nationwide.