In the wake of this month’s attack on Brazil’s Congress, presidential palace and Supreme Court by a mob of former President Jair Bolsonaro's supporters, Brazilian Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes’ role as chief judicial power broker has expanded.
Defining the boundaries of free speech isn’t just a conundrum in Brazil. In the U.S., some conservatives see content moderation of social media as censorship. Some liberals say that not enough is being done to root out hatred, violence and misinformation.
The Supreme Court decided in 2019 to investigate fake news and threats against the top court’s justices, dramatically bolstering de Moraes’ authority to raid, censor and even jail antidemocratic voices. “In the name of democracy, an unelected judge is silencing the elected representatives of the people on the internet,” Greenwald, who fashions himself a free-speech absolutist, said in an interview.
Legal scholars point out that de Moraes isn’t acting on his own. His decisions, while sometimes taken swiftly in response to news reports, must eventually be ratified by the court’s full bench. In the absence of any action from the prosecutor-general — a Bolsonaro appointee — de Moraes has been thrust by his colleagues to the front of their fight against far-right radicalism.
Brazil’s Supreme Court said in a statement that “every investigation is absolutely constitutional.” It added that de Moraes’ rulings in the fake news probe were confirmed by the full court on 40 occasions, as many other investigations under his watch move forward with the court’s authorization.
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