CNN
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Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva said the world was not obligated to put up with billionaire Elon Musk’s “far-right, anything goes” policies because of his enormous wealth.
President Lula da Silva made the remarks in an interview with CNN affiliate CNN Brazil published on Monday, days after Musk’s social media site “X” was suspended in Brazil and made inaccessible in major markets.
“Brazil’s justice system may have sent an important signal that the world does not have to put up with Musk’s far-right, anything-goes tactics just because he’s rich,” the president said.
Lula da Silva’s comments are the latest attack in a long-running feud with Musk over free speech, far-right accounts and misinformation in the country. Over the weekend, Brazilians, including the president, said goodbye to X, with some posting links to his profile on other social media platforms.
Brazil is a key market for X, which has suffered a decline in advertisers since Musk bought Twitter last year and renamed the platform. About 40 million Brazilians, or about a fifth of the population, visit X at least once a month, according to market research group EMarketer.
Access to the platform was blocked after Brazil’s Supreme Court ordered a nationwide suspension of X after Musk refused to appoint a legal representative in Brazil.
The court had previously ordered the blocking of several X accounts as part of a broader national investigation into the spread of misinformation online and hate speech aimed at undermining the country’s democracy.
Accounts the platform has shut down so far under Brazilian orders include lawmakers from former President Jair Bolsonaro’s right-wing party and activists accused of undermining Brazilian democracy.
Musk is a self-described “free speech absolutist” and has repeatedly argued that the court’s actions amount to censorship, an argument that is echoed in Brazil’s right-wing politics.
Musk again weighed in on Brazilian politics on Tuesday, sharing a link to an upcoming demonstration on X that he called a march “to protest freedom, judicial excesses and to defend freedom of speech.”
