Brazil supreme court justice sets deadline for social media platform X to explain alleged non-compliance with previous rulings News
Cayambe, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Brazil supreme court justice sets deadline for social media platform X to explain alleged non-compliance with previous rulings

Alexandre de Moraes, a justice of the Brazilian Supreme Court (STF), issued a five-day deadline for the social media platform X (formerly Twitter) to explain its purported failure to fully comply with earlier court orders on Monday. The deadline expires this Friday.

This move comes amidst an ongoing investigation into what Brazilian authorities have labeled “milícias digitais” (digital militias). These groups are suspected of disseminating disinformation and inciting criminal activities during the presidency of the far-right former leader, Jair Bolsonaro. As part of this investigation, certain accounts have been targeted for blocking, with Moraes overseeing the process.

Among the profiles involved in this controversy are those of prominent bloggers aligned with the Bolsonaro administration, including Allan dos Santos and Oswaldo Eustáquio, Senator Marcos do Val (Podemos-ES) and commentators Paulo Figueiredo Filho and Rodrigo Constantino. According to findings by federal investigators, the individuals under scrutiny have been utilizing “digital militia” operating outside Brazil’s borders to circumvent compliance with court orders. Investigators assert that this conduct exacerbates the polarization of discourse by promoting extremist viewpoints.

In response to these allegations, representatives of X in Brazil stated that the live broadcasting feature was not enabled for accounts and profiles subject to court-issued blocks or suspensions. Additionally, they disclosed that 161 accounts were blocked at the court’s behest, while 65 were blocked following orders from the Superior Electoral Court (TSE).

Elon Musk, executive director of the social media platform X, finds himself ensnared in the investigation. Allegations of “criminal and fraudulent manipulation” and obstruction of justice have been directed toward Musk, leading Brazilian authorities to incorporate him into their inquiry. Musk faces accusations of organizing a public campaign of disinformation and disregarding court directives to block specific accounts on his platform.

THIS DAY @ LAW

Bank of England granted political independence

On May 6, 1997, British Chancellor of the Exchequer Gordon Brown announced that the Bank of England would be granted political independence for the first time in the three-hundred year history of the Bank. This policy was statutized in the subsequent Bank of England Act of 1998 gave the Bank independent control of British monetary policy effective June 1, 1998. Read the Bank of England Act of 1998.

Chinese Exclusion Act barred Chinese laborers from US

On May 6, 1882, President Chester A. Arthur signed the Chinese Exclusion Act, barring Chinese laborers from entering the United States and prohibiting courts from bestowing US citizenship on Chinese. Connecticut Senator Joseph Hawley spoke out against the Act in these words: Let the proposed statue be read 100 years hence, dug out of the dust of ages and forgotten as it will be except for a line of sneer by some historian, and ask the young man not well read in the history of this country what was the reason for excluding these men and he would not be able to find it in the law. The Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 and its successors were abolished in 1943 at the insistence of President Franklin Roosevelt.