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Lula says Elon Musk’s wealth does not mean world must accept his ‘far-right free-for-all’ (www.theguardian.com)

submitted 3 months ago by breakfastmtn@lemmy.ca to c/world@lemmy.world

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The Brazilian president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, has said he hopes the crisis surrounding the social network X in Brazil might teach the world that “it isn’t obliged to put up with [Elon] Musk’s far-right free-for-all just because he is rich”.

Lula’s comments to the network CNN Brasil came after the supreme court voted unanimously on Monday to uphold the ban on X, which is now largely inaccessible in one of its biggest global markets.

The suspension was first ordered on Friday as a result of the company’s refusal to obey court orders requiring the removal of profiles accused of spreading disinformation and for the social network to name a local legal representative.

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[-] trevor@lemmy.blahaj.zone 184 points 3 months ago

Lula is so fucking great. He's literally just backing up the courts that are applying the law fairly and as-written, which is more than I can say for most leaders.

[-] FenrirIII@lemmy.world 14 points 3 months ago

Don't get me wrong, Lula is correct on this. But he's still a scummy politician who has a questionable past

[-] theacharnian@lemmy.ca 79 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago)

Raising 20 million Brazilians out of poverty, while making his country the 8th largest economy in the world? I'm sure he's as corrupt as any Brazilian politician, but none of them have anything that comes even close to that to show for it.

[-] Xanis@lemmy.world 29 points 3 months ago

It's politics. You could have some shoplifting charge from 40 years ago and people will yell about how you're the worst and attempt to invalid everything you do because of it.

[-] acockworkorange@mander.xyz 14 points 3 months ago

He also got arrested for one of the largest corruption scandals in the history of Brazil. It’s a complex person. We can criticize his vices and praise his virtues at the same time.

[-] Excrubulent@slrpnk.net 27 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago)

Oh arrested? Wow, only guilty people are arrested by states led by their fascist political rivals. If he's arrested, he must be guilty. That's how justice works.

You could've said "convicted", but that was annulled and a UN human rights committee found that:

The committee concluded that prosecutors and the lead judge in the investigation, Sergio Moro, showed bias in Lula's case, violating his right to be presumed innocent.

I'm not a fan of politicians in general, but I'd take these charges more seriously if the people prosecuting them weren't so flagrantly politically motivated and breaking the rules. Presumably the reason he was tried in the wrong court was because the state was shopping for a judge that wouldn't give him a fair trial. If he's that guilty, they've muddied the waters by not actually caring about his guilt, and it's going to be way harder to get anything to stick anymore. Like they were in charge of the whole fucking country, how were they this bad at persecuting him?

What I do know is that when a fascist like Bolsonaro is that mad at you, you might actually be doing something right.

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[-] gravitas_deficiency@sh.itjust.works 167 points 3 months ago

Fucking thank you. It’s nice to see at least some heads of state actually have the stones to tell Phony Stark to fuck off.

[-] psycho_driver@lemmy.world 11 points 3 months ago

I would tune in to watch Low-T Stark test out a robotic rocket suit live.

[-] ulkesh@lemmy.world 118 points 3 months ago

And it doesn’t mean Musk has any valid and useful intelligence. He got handed money early in life, got lucky with PayPal, and now thinks because of all of that, his views on the world matter. They don’t. He’s a piece of shit and the world should reject him among many others.

[-] kautau@lemmy.world 34 points 3 months ago

And still salty enough to rename twitter to the company that merged with PayPal since PayPal was such a better name

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/X.com_(bank)

Also ask Musk fanboys who Greg Kouri is and they have no idea

[-] digdilem@lemmy.ml 110 points 3 months ago

Over the past year Musk has removed all masks and clearly believes he can operate beyond the law. His motives are clearly to watch the world burn. He is an extremely dangerous, unpredictable and powerful man, threatening democracy across the globe.

Our governments need to protect us from him. Brazil's being brave here, I hope they're just the first.

[-] daepicgamerbro69@lemmy.world 45 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago)

No. You're giving him too much credit and actually making it seem like mr. Musk is in any sense of the word capable of self-reflection. He is a burned out, incompetent tech-junkie and nothing but a hypeman for expensive toys someone else develops. He might be allegedly blackmailed by Russian kompromat or just plainly stupid enough to believe the propagandistic image of strong Putin/Russia. The only scary thing about him is, he never takes a fall for his numerous blunders. Yet, before first-worlders become the ones paying for his mistakes he will rest comfortably upon his dollar throne.

[-] EnderMB@lemmy.world 10 points 3 months ago

Be that as it may, the man has influence and it would be incredibly foolish to discount this because he's a fucking moron. Sadly, the world is full of extremely incompetent billionaires, and they hold a shocking amount of influence over the world, whether it's through collusion on layoffs, enforcing RTO in tandem, cutting green initiatives within a month of each other, etc.

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[-] intensely_human@lemm.ee 98 points 3 months ago

This is why it’s important to have decentralized social media. We cannot have anyone unilaterally deciding what gets talked about and what doesn’t.

[-] ZapBeebz_@lemmy.world 74 points 3 months ago

Ordinarily, I might agree. However, this suspension is because musk refused to appoint a legal representative for the company in Brazil, IAW Brazilian law. That's a reasonable ask for a company that's actively doing business in the country. If a billionaire* crybaby refuses to follow the law, then he gets to deal with the consequences. FA meet FO.

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[-] Shampiss@sh.itjust.works 41 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago)

Your right to free speech ends when it turns into terrorism, racism or a call for a coup.

There are some things that should be banned, such as the twitter accounts that promoted the attempt at a coup in Brazil in Jan 8 2023.

These are the accounts that the judge asked to be banned. After Twitter didn't comply they started sending fines and eventually outright banning it.

Free speech doesn't mean you can say literally anything. It means the government cannot punish you for your political views. But they can, and must punish racism and anti-democracy speech.

Also, it's a misconception that a decentralized service cannot be banned. In fact it's not hard at all

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[-] LEDZeppelin@lemmy.world 54 points 3 months ago

More like Far-right-free fall

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[-] eronth@lemmy.world 48 points 3 months ago

His wealth also doesn't mean we need to accept his wealth as valid.

[-] psycho_driver@lemmy.world 19 points 3 months ago

It's just make believe numbers.

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[-] theacharnian@lemmy.ca 38 points 3 months ago

Based Lula.

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[-] BigMacHole@lemm.ee 36 points 3 months ago

That's so Weird how Next Week the US will Find Oil in Brazil and oust Lula!

[-] ShinkanTrain@lemmy.ml 23 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago)

Don't ask why the disgraced former judge Sergio Moro, who jailed Lula in 2018, causing the rise of Ballswallower, was invited by the US State Department in the oughts to do their "anti-terrorism" training.

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[-] UncleGrandPa@lemmy.world 27 points 3 months ago

In so many movies that revolves around what would happen if a multi billionaire... Turned EVIL

Well now we know

[-] Buddahriffic@lemmy.world 32 points 3 months ago

You don't get to a billion dollars by being ethical in the first place. At the very least, they are all willing to exploit the labour of hundreds or thousands or more.

[-] P4ulin_Kbana@lemmy.eco.br 19 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago)

I hope that my country's goverment makes the other countries realise how dangerous this man is.

[-] match@pawb.social 12 points 3 months ago

brazilian futurism was not what I expected for 2024 but I'm pleasantly surprised

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this post was submitted on 03 Sep 2024

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