Tens of thousands of Brazilians, led by former president Jair Bolsonaro, took to the streets of Sao Paolo to protest against the socialist government’s crackdown on free speech.
The demonstration, which took place on Saturday, Brazil’s Independence Day, was prompted by the actions of Supreme Court Justice Alexander de Moraes, who banned Twitter/X in Brazil after Elon Musk refused to comply with the Judge’s demands for censorship on the social-media platform.
The huge protests have received little to no coverage in the Western media, but a number of intrepid reporters, including Michael Shellenberger, were present in Sao Paolo to document the protest.
Shellenberger said the protest was “without a doubt one of the largest free speech protests in history.”
The crowd was absolutely enormous. Without a doubt one of the largest free speech protests in history. pic.twitter.com/npVeBE5f6I
— Michael Shellenberger (@shellenberger) September 7, 2024
In a long post on Twitter, Shellenberger said that the Brazilian government’s censorship “goes far beyond what Brazil’s constitution allows. The government demanded that X and other social media networks censor and ban individual people, including journalists and politicians. Such bans are immoral, illegal, and unconstitutional. They constitute election interference and undermine democracy by preventing candidates from getting the word out.”
“Democracy and secure elections depend on freedom of speech,” Shellenberger continued.
“The idea that we must censor speech to protect democracy ranks with other Orwellian ideas like ‘War is peace’ and ‘Slavery is freedom.’ For thousands of years, democracy and freedom walk hand in hand, as do censorship and dictatorship. Everybody knows in their heart that censorship is wrong. We all know that we are imperfect and do not know everything. We know that we rely on others to discover the truth. Why, then, do so many people want censorship?”
Jair Bolsonaro’s son Eduardo spoke with Breanna Morello on Friday and told her that the government is using concerns about “hate speech” to try to smother the populist movement led by his father.
Brazilian judge Alexandre de Moraes has banned X and is trying to lock up his political opposition.
— Breanna Morello (@BreannaMorello) September 5, 2024
Brazil's former President Jair Bolsonaro's son is speaking out about being targeted.
Eduardo Bolsonaro (@BolsonaroSP) joined me to detail the corruption.
CC: @elonmusk pic.twitter.com/Cryg6wclHo
“They’re trying to kill the movement headed by former president Jair Bolsonaro, my father. This is the main thing. It’s not about free speech or even ‘hate speech,’ this narrative that they create to try to justify this censorship. It’s just because they want to kill the movement. Because if they let us speak, as we have the truth on our side, they do not have a chance in the debate.”