(AFP Report).- Former Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro leads an event this Sunday in Rio de Janeiro to defend freedom of expression, in his opinion threatened in Brazil, in the midst of a fight between justice and magnate Elon Musk over censorship and misinformation.
Hundreds of followers of the far-right ex-president have gathered since early in the morning under an intense sun in front of the emblematic Copacabana beach, AFP confirmed.
“The whole world is aware of how threatened our freedom of expression is,” the 69-year-old politician said in a video posted Thursday on his social networks.
“Let us carry out our act peacefully, in defense of democracy, for our freedom, without posters or banners,” he asked.
Attentive to the slogan, many of their supporters attend dressed in Brazilian national team shirts, wrapped in Brazilian flags or with their colors.
“I came to fight for my freedom of expression because we no longer have that right. The STF (Supreme Federal Court) crossed all limits. (…) It is not because of a party or a person,” said Daiana Mesquita, a 38-year-old communicator.
Bolsonaro resorted to the argument of defending freedom to rally his followers, following Musk, owner of platform
In the name of fighting disinformation, De Moraes ordered the blocking of user accounts on internet platforms, including X, especially following attempts by Bolsonaro supporters to discredit the voting system during the last electoral campaign.
The American tycoon, who has not hidden his harmony with Bolsonaro, called Moraes a “dictator” and said that he should be removed. He also threatened to disobey court orders to suspend his accounts.
In response, the magistrate ordered an investigation into Musk, accusing him of “criminal instrumentalization” of the platform.
Voltage escalation
The fight between the two extended to the entire political and legal sphere in Brazil.
Other members of the high court spoke out in support of De Moraes, while President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva said at a recent event, without referring to Musk directly, that “if I might, I would make a decree to prohibit lying” and “imprison anyone.” lie.”
De Moraes, who has multiplied his public speeches these days, stated on Friday that the Brazilian justice system is used to “fighting foreign mercantilists who treat Brazil as a colony.”
In parallel, the Public Defender’s Office asked the court that platform
For their part, Bolsonaro legislators and other supporters accused the supreme court of being aligned with Lula’s government and of undermining democracy and freedoms.
Even a committee of the United States House of Representatives intervened in the fight, making public on Thursday a report of hundreds of pages with confidential decisions by De Moraes involving X and other digital platforms.
Last week, the representation in Brazil of the social network
The shadow of justice
The Bolsonaro demonstration will take place two months following Bolsonaro returned to the public arena, with a show of force in Sao Paulo, which brought together some 185,000 people, according to researchers’ estimates.
Disqualified from contesting elections until 2030 for having misinformed regarding the electoral system, the former president (2019-2022) has dedicated the last few months to traveling the country to meet his supporters.
Several judicial investigations are planned on him. The most serious suspicion is that he conspired to prevent the leftist Lula from taking power following the October 2022 elections.
The investigators are handling a document that would have been in the hands of Bolsonaro and intended, they said, to “prevent the access to power of the legitimately elected president”, call new elections and arrest De Moraes, also president of the Superior Electoral Court.
This draft decree is “the biggest fake news in the history of Brazil,” said Bolsonaro in the video in which he called for demonstrations this Sunday.
The former president has always proclaimed his innocence and calls himself the victim of “persecution.”
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2024-04-24 02:23:34
