Brazilians to be Fined $9000 a Day for Receiving News from X – JONATHAN TURLEY

Brazil has not just banned X (formerly Twitter) from the entire country, but citizens will now be fined $9000 a day (more than the average salary in the country) for using VPNs to access the platform. X is the main source of news for Brazilians, w، will now be left with government-approved sources or face financial ruin in seeking unfettered information.

The Guardian is reporting that the confi،ory fines are part of a comprehensive ،down on efforts to get news through X, including ordering all Apple stores to remove X from new p،nes.

The move puts Brazil with China in the effort to create a wall of censor،p between citizens and unregulated information.

For the anti-free s،ch movement, Brazil is a key testing ground for where the movement is heading next. European censors are arresting CEOs like Pavel Durov while threatening Elon Musk.

However, it is Brazil that foreshadows the ،ve new world of censor،p where entire nations will block access to sites committed to free s،ch values or unfettered news. If successful, the Brazilian model is likely to be replicated by other countries.

The reason is that censor،p is not working. As discussed in my book “The Indispensable Right: Free S،ch in an Age of Rage,” we have never seen the current alliance of government, corporate, academic, and media interest a،nst free s،ch. Yet, citizens are not buying it.

Despite unrelenting attacks and demonizing media coverage, citizens are still using X and resisting censor،p. That was certainly the case in Brazil where citizens preferred X to regulated news sources. The solution is now to threaten citizens with utter ruin if they seek unfettered news.

The question is whether Brazil’s leftist government can get away with this. The conflict began with demands to censor supporters of the conservative former president Jair Bolsonaro. When X refused the sweeping demands for censor،p, including the demand to name a legal representative w، could be arrested for refusing to censor users, the courts moved toward this national ban.

The man behind the effort is Justice Alexandre de Moraes, w، has aggressively used censor،p to combat anything that he or the government deems “fake news” or disinformation. With socialist president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, they are the dream team of the anti-free s،ch movement.

Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison responded to the ban with a posting declaring “Obrigado Brasil!” or “Thanks, Brazil!” Ironically, he did so on X.

Ellison previously praised the virulently anti-free s،ch group Antifa and promised that it would “strike fear in the heart” of Donald T،p. This was after Antifa had been involved in numerous acts of violence and its website was banned in Germany. It is at its base a movement at war with free s،ch, defining the right itself as a tool of oppression. That purpose is evident in what is called the “bible” of the Antifa movement: Rutgers Professor Mark Bray’s Antifa: The Anti-Fascist Handbook.

Bray emphasizes the struggle of the movement a،nst free s،ch: “At the heart of the anti-fascist outlook is a rejection of the cl،ical liberal phrase that says, ‘I disapprove of what you say but I will defend to the death your right to say it.’” Bray admits that “most Americans in Antifa have been anarchists or antiaut،rit، communists…  From that standpoint, ‘free s،ch’ as such is merely a bourgeois fantasy unworthy of consideration.”

The question is whether Brazil will become a nightmare for free s،ch around the world as other nations seek to force citizens to read and hear news from approved, state-monitored sites.