A foreign minister who has served under a former prime minister Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro He called on the Biden administration to condemn his country’s ban on social media platform X, saying the US has a “responsibility” to raise its voice.
Ernesto Araújo, who served as foreign minister under Bolsonaro from 2019 to 2021, said the US has a “responsibility to be the reference point for democracy, the rule of law and freedom in this hemisphere.” But the White House has been silent for too long, he said, and its hesitancy to advocate for free speech predates the ban on X, he said.
,Biden administration “It’s not fitting that — it hasn’t been fitting that for a long time — and about what’s happening in Brazil, because banning X is not an unexpected thing,” Araújo told Fox News Digital. “It’s just one more step, after many steps, to reduce basic rights and destroy the rule of law, destroy democracy in Brazil, that the Supreme Court, a large part of the political class, and the administration have never done anything about.”
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Alexandre de Moraes, Justice of the Supreme Court of Brazil Banned last week X The suit called for “the immediate, total and total suspension of X’s operations” in Brazil after the company failed to appoint a legal representative in the country.
Brazil’s Foreign Minister Ernesto Araújo holds a press conference at the Itamarati Palace in Brasilia on March 2, 2021. (Evaristo Sa/AFP via Getty Images)
The ban will remain in place “until all court orders are complied with, fines are paid and a new legal representative for the company is appointed in the country.” According to The Guardian,
X, under vocal Owner Elon MuskThe group has refused to comply with Moraes’ order to ban several accounts linked to individuals involved in last year’s alleged coup attempt. The powerful judge alleged that these accounts had spread misinformation and posed a threat.
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Musk accused the judge, an ally of Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, of attacking freedom of expression and said the order violates Brazil’s constitution. He further alleged in a post on X that the judge had targeted his platform “for political reasons.”
US President Joe Biden will meet Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva on the sidelines of the 78th United Nations General Assembly in New York City on September 20, 2023. (Jim Watson/AFP via Getty Images)
The White House has remained silent on the issue, and declined Fox News Digital’s request for comment. US State Department has also not issued any comment regarding this decision.
“I think the United States has this kind of international responsibility in the world — certainly in the hemisphere,” Araujo said. “It should be an ally of those who are trying to defend freedom, not of those who are destroying freedom.”
Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro hands U.S. President Donald Trump a soccer jersey during a meeting in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, DC, Tuesday, March 19, 2019. Trump said he is “very interested” in making Brazil an official U.S. ally, a status that would give the country preferential access to American military equipment and technology. (Chris Kleponis/Pool via Bloomberg)
“So I’m seeing a lot of empathy from the Biden administration, Democratic Party“It’s not a question of right wing or left wing; it’s a question of those who claim to be in favour of democracy,” he said.
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The order has not gone down well in Brazil, as the ban has caused a lot of dissension in the country. Many users have moved to other platforms – mainly rivals BlueSky and Threads.
The Brazilian user base for X is a fifth and a sixth of Instagram and TikTok, respectively, but the platform has served as a major hub for news agencies and political and opinion leaders, giving it an outsized influence.
Elon Musk is seen during Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s address to a joint meeting of Congress in the House Chamber of the US Capitol on Wednesday, July 24, 2024. (Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc. via Getty Images)
Isabela Patriota, development director of the Ladies of Liberty Alliance and head of its Brazil section, said, told Fox Business He said the protest would take place on Saturday, which coincides with Brazil’s Independence Day celebrations.
While many Brazilians have found alternative social media outlets, former officials and allies of Bolsonaro argue the ban sets the stage for further restrictions. Patriota fears courts could eventually take similar action against other platforms and services if judges find they also pose a threat. Musk also owns Starlink, a satellite internet service that de Moraes has targeted.
“While X is just another platform, and a lot of Brazilians are already migrating to different platforms, Starlink is giving access to many, many, many communities in the Amazon regions that they wouldn’t have had without Starlink,” Patriota said.
Araújo also expressed concern about his country’s international progress, saying Brazil continues to build ties with “the regional bloc of China, Russia, Iran.”
“It’s basically a game,” Araújo said. “Lula wants to play this game… He’s really aligning Brazil, for every important thing, with the enemies of freedom, with the enemies of the United States.”
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“I think it’s in the hands of some people in the State Department or the Democratic Party who think Lula is their friend, who also think — I don’t know if it’s for some special interest or they’re just not smart enough to know what’s going on — who think Lula is the good guy, and the right wing in Brazil are the bad guys.”
The White House did not respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment by the time of publication.
