This is a screenshot of the most beautiful karma post of 2024.
After having abused his ownership of X for two years, Brazil becomes the first country to simply shut down X.
The legally elected social democratic government of Brazil experienced a January 6 style coup attempt by anti-democratic, hard-right nationalist Bolsonaro in January 2023.
They have since fought a long legal battle to get Musk to shut down X accounts related to this coup.
Musk refused.
So they shut him down.
@randahl Russia blocked Twitter/X in 2022 for the same reason.
However I don't see how this is a good news. Internet censorship hurts people and creates bad precedent.
Do you want your own country start blocking access to websites left and right and imposing huge fines on their own citizens for attempting to circumvent the blocks?
theguardian.com/technology/art…
"The decision imposes a daily fine of R$50,000 (£6,800) on individuals and companies that attempt to continue using X via VPN."
@shuro Lula, the president of Brazil, was elected by a 51 percent majority of Brazilian voters in spite of all the attempts by Bolsonaro to prevent free and and fair elections. He now wants to prevent Bolsonaro from orchestrating a coup through X.
Putin was elected president because of his own success with oppressing all opposition in Russia. And he cracks down on all social media to suppress the free will of the Russian people.
There is a stark difference.
@randahl Well, Putin is supported by majority and he indeed wins elections but it is not the point.
The point is that in both cases the government chooses to block access to a huge and diverse platform which affects lives of many. They don't pursue Musk or X judicially in their jurisdiction but rather just block access for their citizens (without asking them by the way - very democratic) and then threaten not Musk but their citizens with considerable punishment if they won't comply.
This doesn't end well.
@randahl @josemurilo I get how it works legally (same happens in Russia).
I still think it is horrible approach. Basically it allows the government to block everything on the Internet. Send a request to any service, they find it unreasonable and ignore, you cut your citizens from it. This will get out of hand.
@randahl @josemurilo I do not. To be clear: I wish Brazil well and I do not mind them prosecuting Musk or X.
However no matter what the system is I find this particular idea of blocking something on the Internet nationwide and threaten citizens with punishment for circumventing it a horrible approach and very prone to misuse.
Randahl Fink
Шуро
Ecologia Digital