April
13, 2024
Brazil’s
President Luis Inacio Lula Da Silva on Wednesday warned about a reality that is
no longer a secret: neoliberalism is aggravating the inequality that plagues
democracies and among the rubble extreme right-wing adventurers are arising who
deny politics.
Brazil is no stranger to this phenomenon, encouraged especially
during the government of the nefarious Jair Bolsonaro, and it is “urgent to
break the dissonance between the voice of the markets and the voice of the
streets”.
Disinformation
on social networks takes advantage of the vulnerable, while extremists advocate
a “neo-fascism, a primitive, conservative, and authoritarian nationalism”. To
what extent does fake news, hatred, and conspiracy theories damage democracy?
“A reflection cannot be delayed amid the technology boom,” said the president
while pointing the finger at tycoon Elon Musk, the current owner of the X
platform, formerly Twitter.
Lula
made these statements during the announcement of the construction of 112,000
houses under the My House, My Life program created for farmers,
Afro-descendants, and indigenous Brazilians. “We have a very serious issue in
the country, which is to see if we want to live in a democratic regime or not,”
he warned, a few days after Musk issued offensive criteria on his official X
account against one of the members of Brazil’s highest court of justice.
“We
have to decide if we are going to allow the world to live under xenophobia and
extremism. We are witnessing the growth of neo-fascism, which allows a
businessman who has never produced a blade of grass in this country to have the
audacity to speak out against the Brazilian Supreme Court, Brazilian ministers,
and the Brazilian people. It is not possible,” said Lula during the event in
which he repudiated Musk’s remarks against Judge Alexandre de Moraes.
Currently,
De Moraes is leading the thorniest ongoing investigations in the country, that
includes the coup attempt of January 8, 2023, or the dissemination of fake news
and hate messages on social networks, especially those launched against the
electoral process of 2022, the year Jair Bolsonaro lost the election to Luiz
Inácio Lula da Silva.
“This
judge has repeatedly betrayed the Constitution and the people of Brazil. He
should resign or be impeached,” Musk charged after De Moraes ordered blocking
of certain X accounts in Brazil. The billionaire also promised to publish soon
“all of Alexandre de Moraes’ judicial requests and how these requests violate
the law,” while accusing the judge of “censorship.”
In
response to the offenses, Moraes opened an investigation on Musk’s conduct and
ordered the X Corporation not to disobey court decisions and to pay a fine of
US$20,000 for each reactivated blocked profile. The magistrate stated that he
saw signs of obstruction of justice and incitement to commit crimes in Musk’s
actions. In addition, he understood that the billionaire used social networks
to spread misinformation and destabilize the institutions of the Democratic
Rule of Law.
According
to political analysts, this is another destabilizing attempt. Musk is using the
unchecked power he has by owning X to destabilize Brazil and boost his own
business. “It’s no secret that Musk is close to Bolsonaro and Donald Trump. But
the effort could go beyond that bond. This is a political rapprochement with
the Brazilian extreme right, a coup plot, or a business strategy involving the
interests of other companies in his conglomerate, such as SpaceX, Starlink, and
Tesla,” expert Valeria Saccone published in France 24.
“We
will not be with our heads down. We learned that we are no better than anyone
else, but we know how to defend our principles and our democracy. Meanwhile,
there are billionaires interceding in the internal affairs of other countries.
They are trying to build rockets to travel up to space, to see what they can
find out there. You are going to have to learn to live here and use much of the
money you have to help preserve this planet, and most importantly to improve
people’s lives in peace,” Lula concluded.
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