The United States has a “responsibility” to speak out

A foreign minister who served under former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro has called on the Biden administration to condemn his country’s ban on social media platform X, saying the United States has a “responsibility” to speak out.

Ernesto Araújo, who served as foreign minister under Bolsonaro from 2019 to 2021, said the United States has “the responsibility to be the reference for democracy, for the rule of law and for freedom in the hemisphere.” But the White House has been silent for too long, he said, and its hesitancy to defend free speech predates the X ban, he said.

“The Biden administration is not living up to what is happening in Brazil, and it has not been doing so for a long time. The ban on X is not an unexpected measure,” Araújo told Fox News Digital. “It is one more step, after many steps, in the limitation of fundamental rights and the destruction of the rule of law, the destruction of democracy in Brazil, something perpetrated by the Supreme Court, by a good part of the political class, and the administration has never done anything.”

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Last week, Brazilian Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes banned X after the company failed to appoint a legal representative in the country, leading to the “immediate, complete and total suspension of X’s operations” in Brazil.

The ban will remain in effect “until all court orders… are complied with, fines are duly paid and a new legal representative for the company is appointed in the country,” according to The Guardian.

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X, run by owner Elon Musk, has refused to comply with Moraes’ order to ban several accounts linked to individuals involved in an alleged coup attempt last year. The powerful judge alleged that the accounts spread false information and posed a threat.

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Elon Musk accused the judge, an ally of Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, of attacking free speech and said the order violated Brazil’s constitution. He further alleged in a post on X that the judge targeted his platform “for political reasons.”

The White House has remained silent on the matter and declined to comment on Fox News Digital’s decision. The U.S. State Department also has not commented on the decision.

“I think the United States has this kind of international responsibility in the world, in the hemisphere, of course,” Araújo said. “They should be allies of those who are trying to protect freedom and not of those who are destroying it.”

“So I see the Biden administration and the Democratic Party sympathizing with the wrong people in Latin America,” he added. “It’s not a question of right or left, it’s a question of those who simply claim to be pro-democracy.”

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The ban has not been well received in Brazil, where the country is deeply divided. Many users have left the country to turn to other platforms, mainly its competitors Bluesky and Threads.

X’s Brazilian user base is one-fifth and one-sixth that of Instagram and TikTok, respectively, but the platform has served as a major nexus for news agencies and political and opinion leaders, giving it outsized influence.

Izabela Patriota, development director for the Alliance of Ladies of Liberty and head of its Brazil chapter, told FOX Business that the protests will materialize on Saturday, which coincides with Brazil’s Independence Day celebrations.

While many Brazilians have found alternative social media, former officials and Bolsonaro allies say the ban sets the stage for more. Patriota fears that courts could eventually take similar action against other platforms and services if judges determine they pose a threat as well. Musk also owns Starlink, a satellite internet service that de Moraes has targeted.

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“While X is just another platform and many Brazilians are already migrating to different platforms, Starlink offers access to many, many communities in the Amazon areas that they would not have access to without Starlink,” Patriota said.

Araújo also expressed concern about his country’s international trajectory, noting that Brazil has continued to build ties with “the territorial bloc composed of China, Russia and Iran.”

“This is actually a game,” Araújo said. “Lula wants to play this game… In reality, for all that matters, he is allying Brazil with the enemies of freedom, with the enemies of the United States.”

“I think it’s in the hands of some people in the State Department or the Democratic Party who think that Lula is their friend and who also think – I don’t know if it’s out of special interest or if they’re just not smart enough to know what’s going on – that Lula is the good guy and the right is the bad guy in Brazil.”

The White House did not respond to a request for comment from Fox News Digital at the time of publication.

Source of the original article: Key Bolsonaro lieutenant slams Biden for silence on Brazil’s porn ban: US has ‘responsibility’ to speak out