President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris, along with Democrats haven't formally denounced Brazil's censorship of X because they "not only support the censorship but have also been directly funding it," investigative journalist Michael Shellenberger claimed Sunday.
"The Biden administration and Democrats have played an influential role in instigating censorship in Brazil," Shellenberger wrote in a piece for Public, which he shared on his X account. "The FBI went to Brazil and gave its Supreme Court justices advice on how to censor its population. The US government has been funding many of the NGOs in Brazil that have demanded censorship since the election of a populist president there in 2018."
He added that when he testified before Congress this past May, "Democrats on the committee and their witness defended Brazil's censorship."
Brazil started blocking X early Saturday after the company refused to comply with Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes' order to name a legal representative in Brazil.
The move marked an escalation in a long-standing feud between X owner Elon Musk and the justice over free speech and the potential for misinformation.
"The world took a giant leap forward into totalitarianism yesterday as the Brazilian government blocked X, formerly Twitter, and threatened to fine its citizens $8,900 per day if they use it," Shellenberger wrote.
Brazil has joined North Korea, China, and Iran in blocking X, he added. The country is the world's sixth-largest by population and has the world's 12th-largest economy.
"It doesn't matter whether or not you care about Brazil," said Shellenberger. "Its totalitarianism is at risk of spreading around the world."
Meanwhile, he said that Brazil's government-funded news media is urging censorship to benefit President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva's Working Party.
"It's up to Senate President Rodrigo Pacheco to impeach the Supreme Court Justice turned dictator, Alexandre de Moraes," Shellenberger added, "and Pacheco yesterday affirmed his support for Moraes."
Moraes this week defended censorship as a way to keep "extremist populist groups" from coming to power, but Federal Communications Commissioner Brendan Carr pointed out that his move violates the Brazilian constitution and its protections for political speech.
"The totalitarian takeover of Brazil is a model for what the Democrats and the legacy news media want for the whole world," Shellenberger further claimed, adding that "pro-censorship scholars at Stanford and Harvard," as well as congressional Democrats and the U.S. news media recognize that the First Amendment blocked their plans.
This has led to censorship efforts in nations that lack strong free speech protections to censor and block X, he continued.
"It's important that we fight back," Shellenberger wrote. "We need to show our support for free speech. I urge my Brazilian friends to stay on the platform. Everyone knows that it would be extremely difficult for Moraes to enforce his insane decree, much less fairly and equally. "
Further, Biden and Harris must denounce Brazil's actions, as it's "incredible" that Carr is the only U.S. government official to speak out, Shellenberger said, calling for congressional hearings.
"A worldwide free speech movement can pull Brazil back," he said. "It's time to make 1984 and 'Animal Farm' fiction again."
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.