Radical Ideas’ Raphael Lima delves into the concerning situation brewing in Brazil where the government is introducing legislation that could lead to social media censorship. Google, for instance, penned an article criticizing the law for its potential to create legal uncertainty and censorship, only to be ordered to take it down or face hourly fines. Telegram, too, warned its users about the law's implications, encouraging them to reach out to their representatives. However, they were ordered by the Supreme Court to retract the message and issue a new one, admitting they had "attacked the democratic state of Brazil". This poses a question: Is this law an example of censorship? Yet, it seems Brazilians aren't allowed to say so.
In a tweet that reached nearly three million people in 24 hours, the longtime Democrat and Bernie Sanders supporter ripped Democrats who threatened reporter Matt Taibbi with prison following his congressional testimony on the Twitter Files.“What an embarrassing, shameful time for the Democrats and the ‘free’ press,” wrote Robbins. “You are losing any shred of credibility you had, you f**king fools.”
Many reports and opinions once labelled “misinformation” turned out to be true.In recent years, people in government and big media suddenly decided it was their job to stop “misinformation."Facebook banned posts that claimed Covid leaked from a lab. Now experts say the lab leak theory is probably right.Senator Rand Paul was suspended from YouTube for saying, “masks don't work very well, particularly the cloth masks.” What he said is absolutely true.Twitter prevented the NY Post’s reporting about Hunter Biden’s laptop from being shared. The story was accurate.It’s bad thing when media censors people. It’s worse when government polices speech. Twitter’s recently released internal files show government tried to control what you read.
