Musk’s latest nemesis: A Brazilian judge risking overreach in hate-speech fight

livemint.com:

SÃO PAULO—It was a request that had become routine for a judge who defined his career by cracking down on hate speech online. But this time someone said no. Brazilian Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes said he had called on X owner Elon Musk to block the accounts of criminals inciting attacks on police officers and their families.

But Musk refused and closed the social-media giant’s offices in Brazil, thereby breaking a 2002 law requiring a legal representative in the country. It was the only example of offensive content cited in a 51-page ruling that banned X in Brazil, marking the most audacious move in a yearslong crusade to regulate social media from the bench that has made de Moraes a household name among Brazilians. He has put Brazil at the center of a global debate about free speech and brought new scrutiny to the country’s judges, who are empowered by a lengthy constitution that gives them the option to act as prosecutor, judge and jury.

In the past two years alone, de Moraes has ordered the arrest of more than a thousand people in the name of safeguarding democracy—mainly antigovernment rioters or those he said had spread lies about the court online. He has single-handedly removed a state governor from office and temporarily shut down the messaging app WhatsApp. He has ordered hundreds of social-media accounts to be blocked, including those belonging to congressmen and businessmen, often with little to no explanation as to why.