Brazil: Ban on 'X' comes into effect
Brazil became the second country in South America in the last two months to ban the social media platform X. Our correspondent Brian Mier has more on this topic.
Millions of Brazilians woke up on August 31 in a country which no longer has x after the supreme court ordered the national telecommunications agency to block the social media platform for non-compliance with national legislation. The move came 12 days after Elon Musk closed X's Brazilian offices in an attempt to avoid liability in a criminal investigation against the company.
Millions of Brazilians woke up on August 31 in a country which no longer has x after the supreme court ordered the national telecommunications agency to block the social media platform for non-compliance with national legislation. The move came 12 days after Elon Musk closed X's Brazilian offices in an attempt to avoid liability in a criminal investigation against the company.
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00:00Brazil became the second country in South America in the last two months to ban the social media platform X.
00:06Our correspondent Brian Meir has more on this topic.
00:10Millions of Brazilians woke up on August 31st in a country which no longer has X
00:15after the Supreme Court ordered the National Telecommunications Agency
00:19to block the social media platform for non-compliance with national legislation.
00:24The move came 12 days after Elon Musk closed X's Brazilian offices
00:29in an attempt to avoid liability in a criminal investigation against the company.
00:35He has to respect the rulings of the Brazilian Supreme Court.
00:38If he wants to, fine, if not, he needs patience.
00:41If it wasn't for this this country would never be sovereign.
00:44Our society doesn't have an inferiority complex where,
00:47just because the guy is American and he yells we get afraid.
00:50No, this guy has to obey our country's laws.
00:53And if the Supreme Court makes a decision, he has to respect it.
00:57If this holds for me, it holds for him too.
01:01When suspects in Brazil's investigation into the failed January 8th, 2023 coup attempt
01:07began to threaten and dox federal agents online,
01:11the Justice Ministry ordered all social media companies to de-platform them.
01:16X not only refused, but company owner Elon Musk personally doubled down on threats against the Supreme Court.
01:23Consequently, on August 6th, the company was charged with obstruction of justice
01:28and issued an $8,000 a day fine for non-compliance with court orders.
01:35The bottom line is that there is nothing new about this.
01:38It's a old kind of conflict between a big multinational corporation and a nation's legal system.
01:44The international corporation is trying to say that it doesn't have to obey a country's laws and court rulings
01:49simply because it doesn't serve its business or political interests.
01:52In this case we know two things.
01:55First, Twitter slash X has a specific vision that the internet should be unregulated.
02:00But also, Musk, the owner of the platform, has a political sympathies that are closely aligned with the Brazilian far right.
02:06Brazil is now the second South American nation to ban X in less than two months.
02:11The Venezuelan government banned the platform in August
02:14after authorities discovered it being used by the far right opposition
02:17to incite nationwide acts of violence during the days following the presidential elections.
02:24Elon Musk is the owner of X.
02:27He's violated all the norms, inciting hatred, fascism, civil war, death.
02:34He's broken Venezuela's laws.
02:37And there are laws in Venezuela.
02:39Let's have respect for our laws.
02:41Brazil's Supreme Court has announced that all X has to do to resume operating
02:46is to comply with a law by re-designating a legal representative in Brazil.
02:52Brian Muir, Telus Sur, Recife.