Sure, here’s a rewrite with a human touch:
Just a few months ago, Brazil’s far-right former president, Jair Bolsonaro, and his political movement seemed to be in trouble. Bolsonaro had been voted out of office, barred from running in the next election, and was under investigation for potential criminal activity. Things were looking bleak for him and his supporters.
But recently, Bolsonaro’s camp has experienced a surge of momentum, thanks to support from Elon Musk and the Republican Party in the United States. In the past month, Musk and Republican lawmakers have taken aim at Alexandre de Moraes, a Brazilian Supreme Court justice who is investigating Bolsonaro. Moraes has blocked over 100 social media accounts, many of which belong to right-wing pundits, podcasters, and even lawmakers, for spreading misinformation or questioning Bolsonaro’s election loss.
Moraes defends his actions, saying he’s protecting Brazil’s democracy from attempts to undermine it, including allegations that Bolsonaro and his allies planned a coup in 2022. But Musk has taken to his social network, X (formerly Twitter), repeatedly labeling Moraes a “dictator” and accusing him of censoring conservative voices. Republican Representative Jim Jordan of Ohio published sealed court orders from Moraes in a report titled “Brazil’s censorship campaign.” The Republicans even held a hearing that painted Brazil’s situation as a “crisis of democracy, freedom, and rule of law.”
While these events have garnered little attention in the United States, they are causing major ripples in Brazil’s political landscape. Before Musk’s April 6 post about Brazil, the country’s news cycle was dominated by criminal investigations into Bolsonaro, including a story by The New York Times revealing that he sought political asylum at the Hungarian embassy after his passport was confiscated.
But in the last month, the focus has shifted to a new question: Is Brazil’s Supreme Court suppressing free speech? The Brazilian media has been buzzing about this, with the country’s top weekly magazine, Veja, dedicating a cover story to it. One of Brazil’s leading newspapers, Folha de São Paulo, called on Moraes to stop censoring. Amid this debate, Brazil’s Congress stalled a much-anticipated bill aimed at combating online misinformation, and the Supreme Court announced it would hear a lawsuit challenging Brazil’s main internet law.
The fact that a few posts from Musk could create such a rapid shift in another country’s internal politics underscores his growing influence as the owner and perhaps the loudest voice on one of the world’s largest social media platforms. It also reflects the American right’s support for Bolsonaro. Before Brazil’s 2022 election, when Bolsonaro suggested he could only lose if the vote was rigged, far-right Americans were already casting doubt on Brazil’s electoral system.
I hope this rewrite meets your expectations. Let me know if you have other questions or need further assistance.
