“He is a defender of democracy, but has overstepped his role as a judge at times when dealing with social media,” Andres Cesar, a political analyst at consulting firm Hold Assessoria Legislativa, told Reuters. “He thinks public opinion is on his side, but I don’t know for how long.”
Mr de Moraes has plenty more miles to run before he hits the mandatory retirement age of 75 for judges, and has high political ambitions, including becoming president, a source close to him told AFP.
He is in part emboldened by the sweeping powers granted to Brazil’s supreme court, which it granted itself in 2019, allowing it to open its own investigations.
That effectively gave the country’s top court the authority to be involved throughout the entire law enforcement and judicial process: to investigate, prosecute, and adjudicate.
Earlier this month, X shut its office in Brazil because of what it called “censorship orders” from Mr de Moraes – a move that it said was “to protect the safety of our staff”.
This week, Mr de Moraes also blocked the local bank accounts of Mr Musk’s Starlink internet satellite company, saying that those funds could be repurposed to cover court-ordered fines linked to X.
The move to block X highlights a larger, global discussion on how to police disinformation without damaging free speech.
A few months ago, Mr Musk, who also owns the electric vehicle maker Tesla and the rocket company SpaceX, had heated exchanges with Anthony Albanese, the Australian prime minister, over a court order to take down posts that showed a knife attack at a church in April.
Such complicated debates over free speech and the internet have been ongoing for years, including discussions at the highest levels of government and at the United Nations, on how to handle posts with terrorist propaganda or violent content.
On Saturday, X was going dark across Brazil, a country of 215 million people, after the nation’s telecom agency, Anatel, took to the social media platform itself to confirm that it would begin implementing the court-ordered ban.