Caving to a Brazilian court’s order to ban certain accounts known to have spread election misinformation during the nation’s 2022 presidential election and paying a $5 million fine, Elon Musk secured dead-named Twitters return to the world’s seventh most-populous nation, the BBC reports.
Justice Alexandre de Moraes ordered Musk’s company to cease operations in Brazil at the end of August because Musk refused to silence the accounts which were found to be at the root of misinformation claiming Donald Trump’s buddy and fellow sore loser Jair Bolsonaro was cheated out of his election, leading to an all-too-familiar scene on January 8th, 2023 when thousands of Bolsonaro supporters took over government buildings in Brasília.
The platform formerly known as Twitter “is proud to return to Brazil. Giving tens of millions of Brazilians access to our indispensable platform was paramount throughout this entire process,” Musk’s PR team posted without admitting their concessions. “We will continue to defend freedom of speech, within the boundaries of the law, everywhere we operate.” Note the “…within the boundaries of the law…” caveat, meaning if a second Trump administra–(gag) admini–(blurf) if the unthinkable happens, Musk would follow the instructions given to him to shut down dissenters.