A few months ago, Brazil’s far-right political movement, led by former president Jair Bolsonaro, seemed to be losing steam. Bolsonaro had lost his re-election bid, was barred from running in the next election, and was under investigation for various criminal activities.
But recently, Bolsonaro and his supporters have experienced a resurgence, thanks in part to support from Elon Musk and the Republican Party in the United States.
Over the last month, Musk and House Republicans have strongly criticized Alexandre de Moraes, a Brazilian Supreme Court justice, for his role in shutting down more than 100 social media accounts in Brazil. Many of these accounts belong to prominent right-wing figures, including podcasters, pundits, and federal lawmakers, some of whom have questioned Bolsonaro’s electoral defeat.
Moraes has defended his actions, saying he is safeguarding Brazil’s democracy against threats from Bolsonaro and his allies, who are accused of orchestrating a coup in 2022. However, Musk has taken to his social media platform, X, to label Moraes a “dictator” and has repeatedly accused him of stifling conservative voices.
The House Judiciary Committee, led by Representative Jim Jordan from Ohio, released sealed court orders from Moraes in a report on Brazil’s “censorship campaign.” And just recently, House Republicans held a hearing portraying the situation in Brazil as a “crisis of democracy, freedom, and rule of law.”
While these activities have drawn little attention in the United States, they are making significant waves in Brazil.
Before Musk began his social media campaign about Brazil on April 6, much of the country’s news coverage focused on the criminal investigations into Bolsonaro. This included a report by The New York Times detailing how Bolsonaro had sought political asylum at the Hungarian embassy shortly after authorities confiscated his passport.
However, over the past month, the focus has shifted to a new question: Is Brazil’s Supreme Court suppressing free speech? The topic has become a hot issue in Brazilian media, with coverage appearing on the cover of Veja, one of the country’s leading weekly magazines. Folha de São Paulo, a major Brazilian newspaper, even urged Moraes to halt the censorship.
The sudden shift in the political landscape, fueled by external support, has revived Bolsonaro’s movement and raised new questions about the balance between safeguarding democracy and protecting free speech in Brazil.
