White House condemns Brazil for banning X in dispute with Elon Musk over freedom of speech

WASHINGTON – The White House on Tuesday issued a rare rebuke to Brazil for blocking its residents' access to X in a free speech battle with billionaire platform owner Elon Musk.

“When it comes to social media, we have made it very clear that we believe people should have access to social media. It is a form of freedom of expression,” White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said in response to a question from reporter Raquel Krähenbühl of Brazilian television station TV Globo at a press conference.

Brazil banned the country's more than 200 million residents from using X on August 30 after Alexandre de Moraes, an influential member of the country's Supreme Court, called for the censorship of a large number of accounts allegedly containing hate speech or misinformation.

Musk rejected this, calling the dictate undemocratic and calling the judge a repressive “dictator” and “Brazil’s Darth Vader.”

X withdrew the company's representatives from Brazil when de Moraes threatened to arrest them for not censoring the user list before the blanket ban.

“Social media is not a no man’s land!” de Moraes wrote in a ruling in April as his dispute with Musk escalated.

Ordinary Brazilians can still access X through VPN providers, but could be fined for doing so under de Moraes' guidelines.

Musk, 53, bought Twitter in 2022 with the aim of restoring the platform's principles of free speech after previous management engaged in rampant political censorship, including of accurate information, such as The Post's reporting in late 2020 on documents from First Son Hunter Biden's laptop showing that his father, President Biden, was involved in foreign business dealings in China and Ukraine.

Jean-Pierre pushed for unrestricted access to social media even as President Biden signed bipartisan legislation requiring the sale or shutdown of Chinese-owned social network TikTok by Jan. 19, the last full day of Biden's term in office.

Former President Donald Trump, the Republican presidential candidate whom Musk is supporting against Vice President Kamala Harris in the Nov. 5 election, opposes the TikTok ban.

“Just so everyone knows, especially the young people, crook Joe Biden is responsible for banning TikTok,” Trump wrote on Truth Social in April after Biden signed the bill. “He's the one pushing for the shutdown, and he's doing it to help his friends at Facebook get richer and more dominant and be able to continue to fight – perhaps illegally – against the Republican Party.”