Hey everybody, welcome back to the Elon Musk podcast. This is a show where we discuss. The critical. Crossroads That Shape, SpaceX, Tesla X, The Boring Company, and Neuralink, and I'm your Host Will Walden One. More thing before we start Google Podcasts is being discontinued by Google. So if you want to continue getting episodes of the Elon Musk podcast, please check us out over at YouTube Music. Search us out over there and that's where you'll be able to find our our podcast through
Google products. Thank you. So much. For understanding I had no control over this, Google pulled the Google Podcast app off of Android and I want to let you know where to continue finding the show over at YouTube Music Search for. Elon. Musk Podcast So Elon Musk is currently defined a Brazilian Supreme Court order aimed at censoring certain user content under the guise of combating
fake news. This legal conflicts shows that there's a huge issue regarding freedom of expression and freedom of speech and the role of social media in Brazil. Now the Brazilian judiciary has demanded that X block content from Brazilian users, which the court labels as false information, are fake news. And Musk's refusal to comply with these demands has led to significant legal scrutiny, positioning him against Brazil's federal judiciary.
Now, the inquiry, known as Digital Militia investigation, does not concern the common issues of controlling big tech's influence, safeguarding democracy or child protection online. Instead, it focuses on a political clash involving the Supreme Court and critics of Brazil's president. This indicates A politicized judicial system as of right now. Now, critics argue that the Supreme Court's actions represent a departure from democratic norms, suggesting that the Brazilian judiciary no
longer operates independently. The scenario portrays A grim situation for democracy in Brazil, which they claim is deteriorating publicly. The controversy stems from the court's attempts to silence commentators with opposing political views, though, especially those who command significant influence through social media platforms. Musk and many Brazilians regard these actions as undemocratic and indicative of a tyrannical approach to governance.
Now, historically, though, Brazil has championed civil liberties with the constitution upholding freedom of speech. This principle has been foundational since Brazil's return to democracy all the way back in 1985, making the current judicial actions against free speech particularly jarring. Now the situation escalated following scandals involving the Workers Party and former president Lula, who was imprisoned in 2017 due to corruption charges.
These events tarnished the party's image and LED to a shift in political power with the election of Bolsonaro in 2018.
Now Bolsonaro, a former army captain known for his straightforward style, was elected on promises to uphold privacy, private property rights, restore order and freedom of speech, and challenging prevailing social and political norms in Brazil. His support largely came from that was disillusioned with the previous regime's corruption of policies and despite his controversial manner and rhetoric, Bolsonaro's administration made significant
strides in fiscal management, deregulation and improving the business environment through digital initiatives. Now by 2021, though, Bolsonaro's potential re election seemed threatening enough to his opponents that efforts were intensified to rehabilitate Lula's political image. The Supreme Court annulled Lula's conviction, enabling him to participate in the 2022 presidential race. This judicial intervention sparked widespread dissent, particularly online where Brazilians express their
disapproval. Now the electoral tribunal responded by increasingly censored online speech and targeting digital platforms to comply with their directives. The punitive measures extended to financial sanctions and also social ostracism, with some critics facing severe repercussions like imprisonment and exile, often without due process for merely questioning the legitimacy of Luda's
election victory. Now, despite the absence of legislation supporting the judiciary stance on fake news, the court persists in its demands for social media platforms to block alleged misinformation, a stance that Musk has publicly challenged now. On April 6th, Musk highlighted the opaque nature of these judicial orders on X, emphasizing the lack of transparency about the reasons behind the blocking orders and the identity of the missing authority.
He also noted the legal threats posed by non compliance, including potential fines. Now, Musk's resistance took a more active form when he recently unblocked several users and threatened to disclose his communications with a Brazilian court, arguing that the public deserves transparency about these judicial interactions. There's another thing going on at X. We'll touch on that real quick. It's significant for its operations.
The platform's brand safety score, as rated by Double Verify, was mistakenly low due to a display error affecting advertiser confidence and investment in the company. Now they have to keep the lights on in order to keep this fight going with Brazil. Now the misinformation about XS brand safety persisted for several months, though, influencing advertising decisions detrimentally.
The correction of this error in Musk's ongoing public fight against censorship in Brazil shows that X is in a tough spot right now. They're not making a lot of money, they're doing OK. But this brand awareness from Double Verify, the brand safety score could hurt them, and it was months in the making. So I'm expecting a lawsuit from Elon Musk and X in the future for this. Check, check. Hey, thank you so much for listening today. I really do appreciate your
support. If you could take a second and hit the subscribe or the follow button on whatever podcast platform that you're listening on right now, I greatly appreciate it. It helps out the show tremendously and you'll never miss an episode and each episode is about 10 minutes or less to get you caught up quickly. And please, if you want to support the show even more, go to patreon.com/stage Zero and please take care of yourselves and each other and I'll see you tomorrow.