Yes, They Want to Shut Down Free Speech

If you want to see the future of free speech in the United States, look to Brazil today. Speech that runs contrary to the existing regime of Brazillian President Lula da Silva is being criminalized. The restrictions grow tighter by the day.

I feel it in my own contacts with my friends there, with whom I’ve been in touch for many years. They fear even answering texts. This is because they cannot know from one day to the next which tech platforms are going to be cooperating with the regime and which are resisting. They fear even getting on the internet without a VPN.

Tragically, the tech platforms themselves have proven to be incredibly unprincipled throughout this entire period. In both the United States and Brazil, most have gone along with the censorship push, even to the point of cheering it on.

One of the few holdouts is the platform formerly known as Twitter, which is now X, managed by Elon Musk. He still believes in free speech as the foundation of all other freedoms. A justice of the Supreme Court in Brazil has sent the company notices to restrict certain accounts in Brazil or else face daily fines. Over the weekend, Mr. Musk flatly refused, prompting the judge to say he is guilty of criminal conspiracy.

In the background is a gigantic protest that filled many city blocks in São Paulo. It was organized mainly through postings on X. This outraged the government and tipped it toward totalitarian controls, cracking down not only on the right of assembly but speech itself.

The Lula regime is a close ally of the Biden administration, so of course the White House has said nothing about any of this. There is even some speculation—I don’t think we are at this point yet but who knows?—that the Biden administration would allow Brazil to extradite Mr. Musk in this criminal indictment. The only thing preventing that right now, in my view, is the bad public relations look for President Biden.

Read full article from The Epoch Times.

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