Musk’s Right-Wing Allies Seize on Brazil X Ban Heading Into Elections
(Bloomberg) -- Brazil’s ban of social-media platform X may be an economic setback for owner Elon Musk, but it’s also a potential political opportunity for the billionaire and his right-wing allies.
Most Read from Bloomberg
Since the network’s shutdown over the weekend, heated arguments about freedom of speech, fake news and online censorship have erupted in Brazil and the US — energizing conservative political movements just as they head into elections in both nations.
Musk’s feud with a top Brazilian judge leading the charge against disinformation is being portrayed as a dangerous example of state overreach.
Donald Trump’s son warns that the US faces a similar fate if the Democrats defeat his father in November. In Brazil, Jair Bolsonaro’s supporters are seizing on claims of “censorship” a month ahead of a municipal vote that will be a key test of support for the governing Workers’ Party nationally.
While the late Friday judicial order to block access to X, formerly known as Twitter, has deprived the company of a major market, it’s also raising its owner’s profile as a champion of free speech.
In the short term Musk “is losing money, but in the long term he is gaining political capital that he’ll spend to gain more money — much more than he has probably lost,” Luca Belli, a law professor at Getulio Vargas Foundation in Rio de Janeiro, said by phone.
Musk, who has cultivated a network of right-wing political allies including libertarian Argentine President Javier Milei, already has fellow billionaires rallying to his side.
The top court’s shutdown of X and its block on bank accounts for Starlink, Musk’s satellite internet service, “put Brazil on a rapid path to becoming an uninvestable market,” hedge fund titan Bill Ackman said on Saturday, drawing an analogy with capital flight from China after “similar acts.”
Donald Trump Jr., in response to Ackman’s post on X, said there’d be “no coming back” for the US if Republicans don’t regain the White House in the Nov. 4 presidential election.
Musk’s name has been floated by the Republican nominee as a possible cabinet appointee. The US tech impresario, a self-styled absolutist on free speech, also backed right-wing leader Nigel Farage against the UK government’s response to racially motivated riots last month, saying “civil war is inevitable” in Britain.
Republican senators in the US, including Ted Cruz of Texas and Rick Scott in Florida, have also seized on the incident to pressure the National Football League to stand up for free speech. The Green Bay Packers are due to play the Philadelphia Eagles in Sao Paulo on Friday as part of the league’s international promotion push.
“The NFL should not reward this radical leftist censorship,” Scott wrote on X, arguing the televised matchup should be cancelled, brought “back home to America,” and streamed on Musk’s social network.
For his part, Bolsonaro — whose supporters ransacked Brazil’s Supreme Court and other government buildings in January 2023 — also decried the move by Justice Alexandre de Moraes.
“This situation, precipitated by the inexplicable desire of some members of the government and the judiciary to control public debate and silence dissident voices, not only affects our freedom of expression, but also undermines the confidence of international companies in operating on Brazilian soil,” Bolsonaro said.
The judge issued his order after Musk defied several others, one of which sought to compel X to shut down Bolsonaro-affiliated accounts accused of spreading misinformation.
“Moraes said in his order that Twitter would be used by the far-right during the elections,” Bia Kicis, a right-wing lawmaker in Brazil, said in an interview. “He confessed he has an electoral goal.”
Polarized Debate
Though the ban on using X deprives it of a key organizing method, the Brazilian right stands to make gains in cities like Sao Paulo, Salvador, and Porto Alegre in October’s municipal elections.
President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva’s backers, meanwhile, argue the judge’s order was necessary to preserve the integrity of the electoral process.
The polarized debate over Musk’s feud with Moraes has “people reacting as if they were soccer fans,” according to Carlos Affonso Souza, head of the Institute for Technology & Society at Rio de Janeiro State University.
“In the middle ground what you’ll see is people trying to understand how proportional it was, and if there was an alternative to a total ban,” he said.
Most Read from Bloomberg Businessweek
©2024 Bloomberg L.P.
