Elon Musk accused a Brazilian Supreme Court justice, Alexandre de Moraes, of rigging Brazil’s 2022 election to allow leftist ex-president Lula to win.
Musk called de Moraes a “brutal dictator” and demanded his removal.
“Why does the parliament allow [Alexandre de Moraes] the power of a brutal dictator?” Musk wrote. “They were elected, he was not. Throw him out.”
Why does the parliament allow @alexandre the power of a brutal dictator?
They were elected, he was not.
Throw him out.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 9, 2024
As head of Brazil’s electoral authority, de Moraes had rejected challenges to the close election results and censored conservative candidate Bolsonaro’s campaign.
De Moraes opened investigations into Musk and Twitter for refusing to comply fully with court orders to censor posts.
“But since Alexandre pulled Lula out of prison and put his thumb on the scale to get Lula elected, Lula will obviously not take action against him,” Musk said. “The next election will be key.”
Musk asked, “How did Alexandre de Moraes become the dictator of Brazil?” The minister “has Lula on a leash.”
“We could not tell them that this was at the behest of Alexandre [de Moraes], we had to pretend that it was due to our rules,” Musk said.
Experts said Twitter risks being banned in Brazil as platforms like WhatsApp and Telegram previously were, though bans have later been overturned.
Lula’s narrow win and de Moraes’ involvement have been controversial due to Lula’s corruption convictions.
“This type of decision has always been overturned because it is considered censorious,” said André Marsiglia, a constitutional lawyer. “Stopping the service punishes the user who makes good use of the network, not the platform.”
