By Ana Braga
For those who don’t know me, I’m originally from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The girl from Ipanema? Not really but my dad lived in Ipanema for several years. Brazil has always been a very open minded country on social issues, at least in the big cities. Although being a predominantly catholic country, Brazil has one of the biggest LGBTQ communities in the world.
A couple days ago, Brazil’s equivalent to the US Supreme Court decided to block Twitter in Brazil along with several other countries. Why did they do that you may ask? Well, Elon Musk bought X formerly known as Twitter, in hopes of having a free speech platform. The problem is, his meaning of free speech has been deceiving, he has not only reinstated hateful accounts previously blocked by Jack Dorsey, but also allows any account to dox (post private information) and even death threats to X’s users. On top of it all, he allows misinformation and often promotes it himself.
Brazil gave Elon plenty of warnings that misinformation, doxing and bullying was not something that would be tolerated and allowed, It could harm people in real time, but Elon ignored. It’s almost like he enjoys causing chaos worldwide. Brazil has fined Elon Musk more than three million dollars. Brazilian citizens are not to use a VPN to try and connect with the platform, failing to do so may result in nine thousand dollars a day and even prison time.
Why can’t Elon just monitor and suspend the bullies on his platform? Is he a chaos agent? Free speech isn’t free of consequences and he’s learning Brazil isn’t going to put up with him.
Unfortunately, in the US, we have to put up with him and the dangers of his platform. Will other countries follow suit? European countries might follow Brazil’s lead next.
You may ask Why don’t you stop using his platform if it’s so dangerous? Because it’s an election year and because I’m not going to let the bullies win.
When we fight, we win. We are not going back!
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