Twitter and Facebook suspended the accounts of 16 allies of Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro on Friday.
Rio de Janeiro, Brazil:
Twitter and Facebook on Friday suspended the accounts of 16 allies of Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro after a Supreme Court judge ordered them blocked as part of an investigation into an alleged disinformation campaign.
Tensions have escalated between the far-right leader and the court, which is investigating allegations that members of his inner circle have campaigned on social media to discredit the court, as well as slander and threaten its judges .
The two US social media giants also face growing pressure to act more aggressively against hate speech and fake news on their platforms.
Judge Alexandre de Moraes said in his court order – which implemented an earlier ruling from May – that accounts must be blocked to stop “the continued spread of false news, slanderous accusations, threats and crimes” against the tribunal.
The accounts concerned include prominent figures such as former Tory lawmaker Roberto Jefferson, business mogul Luciano Hang and far-right activist Sara Winter.
Visitors to their Facebook and Twitter pages in Brazil, but not in other countries, saw messages saying they were blocked.
“This content is not available at the moment,” read their Facebook pages.
A Twitter notice explained: “Account withheld in Brazil in response to legal request.”
A linked post states that the company “was forced to withhold the original Tweet in response to a valid legal request, such as a court order.”
The owners of the blocked accounts reacted with fury.
Winter called the court order a “dictatorship,” while Jefferson compared it to Nazi Germany.
(Except for the title, this story was not edited by GalacticGaming staff and is posted from a syndicated feed.)
