A Brazilian court has announced it will open an investigation into X owner Elon Musk for obstruction of justice after Musk reactivated far-right accounts that the Brazilian government had flagged for removal. The announcement came later Musk called for Brazilian Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes, who heads the country’s Supreme Electoral Tribunal (TSE), to “resign or be indicted” and a Statement from X claimed that the order to delete the accounts violated the Brazilian constitution.
While the court did not publish the list of accounts it had requested to be blocked or investigated, the São Paulo-based newspaper reported Estadao reported that it was fugitive right-wing influencer Allan dos Santos, a supporter of President Jair Bolsonaro. (Dos Santos fled the country in 2020 to avoid investigation for spreading disinformation.) Also on the list is right-wing YouTuber Bruno Aiub, known as Monark, who has over 1 million followers on X and advocates that Brazil the NSDAP should recognize. and Brazilian billionaire and Bolsonaro supporter Luciano Hang.
Separately, after taking over the company, Musk reactivated the accounts of Brazilian far-right politicians Carla Zambelli, Gustavo Gayer and Nikolas Ferreira. Ferreira, a Bolsonaro supporter, openly questioned the security of Brazil’s electronic voting machines despite winning his local legislative race.
“All of these names have been problematic on social media for years,” said Flora Rebello Arduini, campaign director at the nonprofit advocacy group Ekō. “They’ve been pushing right-wing extremism and election misinformation for ages.”
When Musk bought Twitter in 2022 and later renamed it X, many activists in Brazil feared that he would abuse the platform to further his own goals, Arduini says. “He has unparalleled broadcasting abilities. He bullies a justice on the Supreme Court of a democratic country and shows that he will use all the resources at his disposal to impose anything that benefits his personal opinion or professional ambitions.”
Under Musk, X has become a haven for right-wing extremists and disinformation. After coming to power, Musk offered amnesty to users banned from the platform, including right-wing influencer Andrew Tate, who, along with his brother, was indicted in Romania in June 2023 on multiple charges, including rape and human trafficking (he has denied the allegations). . Last month, one of the Tate representatives told the BBC that “they categorically deny all allegations.”
A 2023 study found that hate speech on the platform increased under Musk’s leadership. The situation in Brazil is just the latest example of Musk allying with and supporting dangerous far-right movements around the world, experts tell WIRED. “It’s not about Twitter or Brazil. “It’s about a strategy by the global far right to overcome democracies and democratic institutions around the world,” says Nina Santos, a digital democracy researcher at the Brazilian National Institute of Science and Technology who studies the Brazilian far right. “The opinion of an American billionaire should count no more than a democratic institution.”