Gisakub retweetledi
As another example of Judge de Moraes’ illegal conduct, he issued the following order in January 2023 completely blocking all social media accounts of several prominent Brazilians, including:
- The podcaster Monark (known as the “Brazilian Joe Rogan”)
- Brazilian Senator Alan Rick
- Brazilian Congressman Nikolas Ferreira, who had received the most votes of any Congressman in history
The order is unconstitutional in five different ways:
(1) The order violates the constitutional right of freedom of speech, which is guaranteed by article 5°, IV, of the Brazilian Federal Constitution.
Importantly, Moraes disregarded earlier Supreme Court decisions that had already ruled that freedom of speech protects the right to share opinions and to access different perspectives and points of view.
(2) The order was issued in secret, which violates article 5, LX of the Brazilian Federal Constitution, which states that judicial decisions must be public, other than in exceptional cases when the public interest requires it. The order provides no reason to justify the secrecy and merely serves to avoid public scrutiny.
(3) The order contains no reasons, which violates article 5, LV, of the Brazilian Federal Constitution, which guarantees individuals due process of law and the right to appeal against court decisions. Without reasons, X does not know why the accounts are being censored and on what grounds to appeal.
(4) The order blocks the accounts of sitting federal legislators Alan Rick and Nikolas Ferreira. This violates Article 53 of the Federal Constitution, which explicitly states that legislators’ opinions, words, and votes are inviolable.
(5) The order violates the right to informational self-determination – the right of individuals to control and protect their own personal data – which is guaranteed by article 5, LXXIX, of the Brazilian Federal Constitution. By blocking individuals’ social media accounts, Judge Moraes deprived them of the right to control or even access their own personal data.
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