Blocking the Brazilian President’s Social Media: Supreme Court’s Threat to Democracy

Commentary

In Brazil, judges can have very ambitious political goals. They make the right decisions.

The current presiding judge at the country’s Supreme Electoral Court, Alexandre de Moraes is. He was elected as the presiding electoral officer in August, in a public ceremony with 2,000 guests at the court auditorium. He was a member of the Brazilian Social Democratic Party before being nominated justice of the nation’s Federal Supreme Court on Feb. 22, 2017.

Before being nominated to the nation’s highest court, as reported by the French daily Le Monde, he was at the centre of a controversy when the daily Estadao published an investigation showing that he had intervened as a lawyer in at least 123 legal cases to defend a corporation that some have argued is suspected of being linked to Brazil’s main drug trafficking group, the First Command of the Capital.

Moraes is the country’s highest electoral officer and oversees the presidency elections. He has made many “monocratic” decisions against misinformation and sent some of President Jair Bolsonaro’s supporters and friends to prison, confiscating their devices and freezing their accounts.

On March 18, for example, Moraes ordered the nationwide suspension of the messaging app Telegram. After Telegram had ignored an earlier order not to block Allan dos Santos’ account, which was allegedly a Bolsonaro supporter who spread “misinformation,” the ruling was made .

Moraes mentioned in his decision to suspend Telegram across the country that Telegram had failed to remove misleading content from Bolsonaro’s Telegram page. According to reports, he not only ordered the shutting down of Telegram nationwide but also instructed Apple and Google to create “technological barriers” in order to prevent Telegram from being available on their systems. He then directed them to withdraw Telegram’s digital store in Brazil.

Bolsonaro is running for reelection this October and relies on Telegram in order to reach his voters. Telegram has over a million users, which could be crucial for his election campaign.

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Brazil’s President Jair Bolsonaro speaks, during a joint press conference with Paraguay’s president at the Planalto Palace in Brasilia, Brazil, on Nov. 24, 2021. (Raul Spinasse/AP Photo)

‘Authoritarian Decisions’

On March 19, during the popular television program “Os Pingos nos Is” from Jovem Pam, journalist Augusto Nunes accused Moraes of committing several illegalities, including the abuse of authority and the violation of a clausula petrea (“stone clause”) in the Brazilian Constitution that makes freedom of expression an inalienable right of the citizen.

Nunes also criticised the silence of politicians regarding Moraes’s “decisions,” which included the ban of Telegram across the country.

“It is time for senators and judges to be arrested for cowardice. He said that President Jair Bolsonaro must ask those he has appointed to answer for their cowardice in front of arrogance how much longer they will keep it.”

On May 27, 2020, Justice Moraes, who had become the nation’s top electoral officer, ordered the federal police to launch an operation probing businessmen, bloggers, and politicians allied to Bolsonaro. He also authorized the blockade of their social media accounts, including Instagram, Twitter and Facebook. He stated that the unicratic decision was necessary to stop “misinformation and fake news “.

The investigation into “misinformation”, conducted by Moraes, focuses more on the diffusion of information about the transparency and credibility of electronic voting machines as well as the credibility of Brazil’s electoral commission. This is in fact headed by Moraes.

Filipe Martins, the special advisor to the presidency of the Republic for international affairs, commented that “journalists, humorists, and ordinary citizens who act spontaneously are being treated as bandits for daring to express opinions that displease the establishment.”

Bolsanaro Not the Only Target

Among the targets of police actions ordered by Moraes are the national president of the Brazilian Workers’ Party Roberto Jefferson, businessman Luciano Hang, and congresspersons Douglas Garcia, Gil Diniz, Carla Zambelli, Bia Kicis, Junio Amaral, Filipe Barros, Luiz Phillipe Orleans e Braganca, and Daniel Silveira.

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One of these parliamentarians, Zambelli, said that “every person who respects the law has the obligation to repudiate these searches within the scope of an illegal and unconstitutional investigation.”

Another congresswoman, Kicis stated that “We live in dark times with brazen attacks on democracy.” Do not forget about the people celebrating Justice Alexandre de Moraes’ undemocratic and abusive acts against comedians, journalists and businessmen. They’re complicites in the dictatorship. They are complicit in the dictatorship .

On Aug. 23, Moraes directed the federal police to execute search warrants in five states targeting at least eight businessmen. Moraes ordered the federal police to search their houses, access their accounts and to suspend their social media accounts. These citizens are being investigated over a couple of messages posted in their WhatsApp group whereby some allegedly dared to say they would prefer another military regime to the return of the far-left candidate Lula da Silva to the presidency.

Former president of Brazil Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva speaks during an event to announce Lula’s pre-candidacy for October presidential elections along with running mate Geraldo Alckmin at Expo Center Norte in Sao Paulo, Brazil, on May 7, 2022. (Buda Mendes/Getty Images)

Moraes ordered the blocking of their bank accounts. Luciano Hang was one of the targets of the operation. He is the founder and supporter of Bolsonaro with many followers. Although Hang says he has “never spoken of a coup” and he has “always defended democracy and freedom of expression,” Moraes ordered the blocking of all his social media accounts, including Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, WhatsApp, and TikTok.

“They could take my social media networks away, but they won’t shut me down!” Hang said. He built a chain of department stores that featured replicas of The Statute of Liberty in front. Say no to censorship He posted the following message on Twitter, before his account was shut down by Moraes’ court order.

Other businessmen were reportedly blocked from their bank and social media accounts by Meyer Joseph Nigri (chairman and ex-CEO of property developer Tecnisa), Jose Isaac Peres (founder of Multiplan shopping mall company) and Afranio Bareira Filho (owner of Coco Bambu restaurant chain).

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Brazil’s Democracy Under Threat

Bolsonaro claims that democracy in Italy is under severe attack. These unelected judges were accused of trying to establish a dictatorship judiciary and political interference.

“Brazil has been on the path to totalitarianism. These are the ways dictatorships begin. You lose your freedom little by little, then one day you look, and you are completely tied up,” he told network Jovem Pan.

After all of these amazing things, how could anyone disagree? It is clear that the substitution of the rule-of-law with the rule by judges is threatening the democratic system. The notion that judges are not elected can be elitist, and is completely undemocratic.

It is paradoxical to note that the main threat to democracy and freedom in Brazil comes now from an oligarchy of judicial judges, not elected politicians.

Views expressed in this article are the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.

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Augusto Zimmmann is a professor at Sheridan Institute of Higher Education, Perth. He is also president of the Western Australian (WA) Legal Theory Association, editor-in-chief of The Western Australian Jurist, and served as a member of WA’s law reform commission from 2012 to 2017. Zimmermann is the author of numerous books including “Direito Constitucional Brasileiro”, “Western Legal Theory,” as well as “Christian Foundations of the Common Law.” “

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