The Brazilian government has decided to no longer buy advertising campaigns on X after criticism from Elon Musk, the owner of this social network, who threatened not to comply with the decisions of the Brazilian Supreme Court.
The government led by Lula da Silva will no longer spend resources on promoting executive action on this platform, given the dispute with Elon Musk, sources at Brazil’s Communications Secretariat said this Saturday.
According to the transparency portal, the government spent about 650 thousand reais (120 thousand euros) on institutional communication on social network X between 2023, the year Lula came to power, and the first months of 2024.
The measure, which will apply to new advertising contracts, builds on guidance approved in February aimed at preventing advertising activities on platforms, apps and other means that could “harm the image of the executive branch.”
The Brazilian press reported on Saturday that the social network’s representative in Brazil, lawyer Diego de Lima Gualda, left his post this week.
The controversy began with a series of posts by Elon Musk, who also owns Tesla, in which he accused Brazil’s Supreme Court judge Alexandre Moraes, in charge of a case involving the use of social media to spread fake news, of introducing censorship for determining the blocking of certain profiles on X.
Elon Musk threatened to disobey orders to block these same accounts, saying that he would lift all restrictions imposed by Brazilian justice.
Alexandre Moraes called on the social network not to reactivate the profiles with the help of a Supreme Court order to block it, under the threat of a daily fine of 100 thousand reais (about 18 thousand euros) for each active account.
The judge warned that “social media is not a lawless land or a no-man’s land” and that they must absolutely respect Brazilian laws.
On April 8, Brazil’s Supreme Court ruled to open an investigation against a businessman for attacks on the justice system in this South American country.
The next day, the President of the Brazilian Senate said that regulation of social media was inevitable.
Author: Lusa
Source: CM Jornal
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