Juno News - Free speech CRACK DOWN as X gets BANNED in Brazil

00:00:00.000 well the biggest news item in the world over the past few days is the banning of X in Brazil last

00:00:12.300 week Brazilians could use X like all of us but today Brazilians can't access the website at all

00:00:19.140 unless they use a VPN however if the Brazilian government catches you using a VPN well you'll

00:00:24.900 be fined 12,000 Canadian dollars a day well the man behind this outrageous attack on online freedom

00:00:32.340 is Brazilian Supreme Court Judge Alexandre de Moraes I hope I pronounced that right my Portuguese isn't 1.00

00:00:38.940 very strong now this de Moraes character looks as if he has been picked straight out of central casting

00:00:44.560 for the role of the next James Bond villain now the full banning of X is the latest in a months-long

00:00:50.180 feud between Elon Musk and de Moraes and it all centers around competing efforts to open up online

00:00:56.080 discourse in Brazil and efforts to restrict that discourse and of course it's all being done in

00:01:03.340 the name of protecting democracy you know Brazil is basically living out the fantasy it appears of

00:01:09.600 many inside the Canadian government including Justin Trudeau and Attorney General Arif Verrani the

00:01:15.980 Brazilian government has been shutting down the social media accounts of political dissidents for

00:01:20.620 years now arresting activists and jailing elected politicians for daring to oppose and criticize the

00:01:28.520 Brazilian government on social media in Canada the laws that would give the government the power to

00:01:34.460 determine so-called online hate speech and have you arrested for your opinions on social media have already been

00:01:41.180 proposed and because of that Canadians should be paying close attention to Brazil so let's take a

00:01:46.780 look at the news dominating global headlines today before we do however be sure to drop a like on this

00:01:51.420 video help us out by subscribing to the true north youtube channel and the common question for the episode

00:01:55.740 is this could X become banned in Canada let me know your answer in the comments below and let's get into it

00:02:03.980 nothing says you're protecting democracy quite like banning one of the world's largest social media platforms

00:02:10.940 a Brazilian Supreme Court judge has ordered the immediate suspension of the social media platform X in

00:02:16.620 Brazil meaning people there can no longer access or use it ex-owner Elon Musk failed to meet a deadline

00:02:23.100 set by the court to name a new legal representative in the country the Brazilian court and Musk have been at

00:02:28.860 odds for months fighting over free speech and for X allowing far-right accounts and misinformation on the

00:02:34.940 platform the Supreme Court says it won't bring back the platform until Musk complies with his

00:02:40.700 orders and pays millions of dollars in fines musk was quick to react to this news posting on the

00:02:46.140 platform overnight attacking the judge that issued the suspension so after refusing to provide a legal

00:02:52.220 representative that could be arrested by Brazilian authorities on Friday the Brazilian telecoms regulator

00:02:58.300 told internet service providers to start restricting access to X across the country the man behind this

00:03:05.820 ruling to ban X alexandra Demirai said in a statement on Friday Elon Musk showed his total disrespect for

00:03:13.420 Brazilian sovereignty and in particular for the judiciary setting himself up as a true supranational entity

00:03:19.900 and immune to the laws of each country now a day before the ruling on Thursday night right before

00:03:25.420 X was banned in Brazil the X global government affairs account put out this statement soon we expect judge

00:03:33.420 Alexandra Demirai should order X to be shut down in Brazil simply because we would not comply with

00:03:38.700 his illegal orders to censor his political opponents these enemies include a duly elected senator and a 16

00:03:45.500 year old girl among others when we attempted to defend ourselves in court judge Demirai's threatened our

00:03:50.780 Brazilian legal representative with imprisonment even after she resigned he froze all of her bank accounts

00:03:57.020 our challenges against his manifestly illegal actions were either dismissed or ignored judge Demirai's

00:04:02.380 of the supreme court are either unwilling or unable to stand up to him we are absolutely not insisting

00:04:09.420 that other countries have the same free speech laws as the united states the fundamental issue at stake

00:04:14.540 here is that judge Demirai's demands we break brazil's own laws we simply won't do that this issue really

00:04:21.500 begins back in april of this year when the brazilian court ordered X to remove and delete the accounts

00:04:28.060 of high profile journalists and elected politicians this is how elon musk explained the situation in an

00:04:34.620 X space back in april this uh judge alexander um that's his that's his name on twitter at alexander

00:04:45.020 um and there would be to suspend accounts um immediately we're given typically two hours to

00:04:53.100 suspend an account or face massive fines um and the the final straw is we were being given demands to

00:05:00.620 suspend setting setting members of the parliament and major journalists and moreover we could not tell

00:05:07.980 them that it this was at the behest of uh alexander morales we had to pretend that it was due to our rules of

00:05:15.980 service and that was the final straw and we said no and here's the thing with this supreme court judge

00:05:22.700 he has been doing this since 2019 and since 2019 every other social media company has complied with

00:05:30.700 the orders to remove accounts and to delete posts except for elon musk and x according to a 2022 new

00:05:37.980 york times article about this character mr marish has jailed five people without a trial for posts on

00:05:43.580 social media that he said attacked brazil's institutions he has also ordered social networks

00:05:49.420 to remove thousands of posts and videos with little room for appeal and this year 10 of the court's 11

00:05:56.140 justices sentenced a congressman to nearly nine years in prison for making what they said were

00:06:02.060 threats against them in a live stream and as the new york times article writes many legal experts say

00:06:08.300 that mr maria's show of force under the banner of saving democracy are themselves threatening to push

00:06:14.700 the country toward an anti-democratic slide now according to a tech company official who agreed

00:06:19.980 to speak anonymously to the new york times back in 2022 mr maria ordered major social media networks to

00:06:27.100 remove dozens of accounts erase thousands of posts often without giving any reason and when this official's

00:06:33.740 tech company reviewed the posts and accounts that mr maria ordered it to remove the company found

00:06:39.020 that much of the content did not break its rules so the other tech companies let's just imagine that

00:06:46.220 it's google it's facebook it's uh it's tick tock other tech companies had no problem immediately

00:06:54.460 deleting and removing the accounts at the order of this brazilian court but elon musk because he denied

00:07:00.380 those orders because he refused to comply with the brazilian court's orders to delete accounts that

00:07:05.340 this judge believes to be threatening democracy in brazil that is the core of the issue that is why

00:07:11.980 x is now banned in brazil brazil is one of the largest markets for x in the world with over 20 million users

00:07:19.980 so a unilateral ban like this is a serious problem but the argument from elon musk and from the officials

00:07:28.380 at x is that this is a violation of the brazilian constitution so what does the brazilian constitution

00:07:34.860 even say exactly well it says in pretty clear terms and i quote the manifestation of thought the creation

00:07:43.660 the expression and the information in any form process or medium shall not be subject to any restriction

00:07:50.940 and that no law shall contain any provision which may represent a hindrance to full freedom of press

00:07:58.300 in any medium of social communication with due regard to the provisions above and in paragraph two

00:08:04.940 of the brazilian constitution it says any and all censorship of a political ideological and artistic

00:08:10.780 nature is forbidden and to get a better sense of just who this demurized character is in his very first

00:08:18.140 move his very first decision as a supreme court judge in brazil he ordered a brazilian news outlet

00:08:25.100 crusoe to delete and remove a news article which he believed to be fake news and what was that

00:08:32.700 particular article you may be wondering it showed that the man who appointed demurized to his role in

00:08:38.140 the court mr toffoli who was previously the supreme court justice the head of the supreme court had links

00:08:45.740 to a corruption investigation and it turns out actually that that article was completely true

00:08:51.420 and demurized had to order it to be put back up online as you can imagine not everyone in brazil is taking

00:08:58.220 this order from this authoritarian judge very well an impeachment request with the signatures of over

00:09:06.060 146 brazilian deputies has been signed targeting demurize now it seems that x is really only banned for

00:09:16.380 the brazilian people not the party of the current brazilian president lula da silva because only

00:09:24.620 yesterday did that official party pt brazil make a post to x saying good morning working class pt brazil and

00:09:34.060 president lula wish you a great week now surely members of the democratic party in the united states

00:09:39.660 wouldn't be celebrating this decision would they well it turns out actually that the former deputy chair of the

00:09:45.340 democratic national committee and the current attorney general of minnesota keith ellison well he is

00:09:51.340 celebrating this decision and he wrote on social media two days ago obrigado brazil thanking brazil

00:09:59.100 for banning x and here is kamala harris before becoming the vice president of the united states and 0.99

00:10:06.620 democratic nominee for president saying that donald trump should be removed from social media the sitting

00:10:12.860 president of the united states removed from social media well that's exactly what happened we need

00:10:17.660 more regulation we need more oversight he has he has lost his privileges and it should be taken down and

00:10:23.340 and the bottom line is that you can't say that you have one rule for facebook and you have a different

00:10:27.340 rule for twitter the same rule has to apply which is that there has to be a responsibility that is

00:10:34.140 placed on these social media sites to understand their power they are directly speaking to millions and

00:10:40.620 millions of people without any level of of oversight or regulation and that has to stop it just can't

00:10:48.860 be allowed she says it has to stop she says you know it was ronald reagan who said that if fascism comes

00:10:55.740 to america it will come in the form of liberalism and it seems as though that's exactly what we're seeing

00:11:03.020 right now you know someone very profoundly once said many years ago that if fascism ever comes to america

00:11:08.860 it will come in the name of liberalism and what is fascism fascism is private ownership private

00:11:15.340 enterprise but total government control and regulation well isn't this the liberal philosophy

00:11:20.460 the conservative so-called is the one that says less government get off my back get out of my pocket

00:11:26.860 and let me have more control of my own destiny this exact thing could come to canada as well

00:11:33.740 it's just that brazil is a little further ahead in the process than we are here in canada

00:11:39.340 in february of this year the federal government unveiled bill c63 the online harms act for example

00:11:46.860 if this online harms act passes as proposed by the liberal government under justin trudeau a canadian

00:11:53.180 could be put in prison for life if they violate online hate speech laws also under these laws anyone

00:12:00.220 would have the ability to file a formal human rights complaint against you for posting online

00:12:06.300 hate speech and they would remain anonymous you would not know who your accuser is and the canadian

00:12:11.900 human rights tribunal could fine you up to seventy thousand dollars and the government could force a

00:12:18.140 takedown order of your online hate speech content and we know that in the united kingdom for example

00:12:24.780 there have been numerous arrests of people who have posted content on social media and they produce

00:12:30.780 these show trials to scare everyone else from posting online content the criminalization of online

00:12:38.060 speech is a real threat governments who claim to be liberal who claim to promote free speech who claim

00:12:45.900 to believe in freedom are the ones that are pushing some of the most draconian social media and free speech

00:12:53.660 restrictions that we've ever seen and this isn't in china or russia or iran like we would expect it's

00:13:01.260 happening in brazil and it could happen in canada all right everyone that's going to do it for us

00:13:06.700 today on the show thank you so much for tuning in my name is harrison faulkner and this is ratio

00:13:23.660 so

Juno News - September 03, 2024

Free speech CRACK DOWN as X gets BANNED in Brazil

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