US government is funding censorship in Brazil, says report

The federal government is not only trying to censor American taxpayers but is also promoting censorship overseas, according to a report last week from journalist Michael Shellenberger. 

Shellenberger said he discovered that US agencies, primarily those within the intelligence community, are helping the Brazilian government suppress free speech.

“[M]y colleagues and I have discovered that US government agencies, including the FBI and known intermediaries with the CIA, have been funding pro-censorship advocacy and advising the Brazilian government on how to engage in censorship,” Shellenberger wrote last week.

The report centered on the recent feud between X owner Elon Musk and Brazilian Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes. Moraes, who has been ordering crackdowns on free speech to "protect democracy,” demanded X suspend users accused of “misinformation” by the government. Musk heatedly refused and shut down operations in the country. They resumed this week after Musk paid the Brazilian government a $5.5 million fine for the company’s non-compliance, according to CoinTelegraph.

Shellenberger himself is a target of Moraes’ censorship.

“This matters to me personally because the Brazilian government is currently persecuting me for exposing its illegal censorship and for denouncing its transformation into a dictatorship,” he wrote on X. “The Federal Police wrote two reports about my alleged crime of publishing the Twitter Files - Brazil, which exposed illegal government censorship. President Lula’s Administration followed this up with a report by the Attorney General, recommending my prosecution.”

“But it should matter to all Americans because it is a gross abuse of power by the Kamala Harris-Joe Biden administration and further proof that the so-called Deep State agencies of the US government are pushing for illegal censorship and other totalitarian attacks on core American freedoms,” he added.

Moraes has also threatened Telegram with daily fines if it does not comply with the government’s demands to censor Brazilian users.

Rep. Smith: Biden-Harris admin has ‘weaponized US foreign assistance’

Rep. Chris Smith (R-NJ), who serves as a senior member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, chaired an investigation into Brazil’s increasingly authoritarian government. Last week he accused the Biden-Harris administration of assisting Brazil in suppressing free speech.

“The Biden-Harris Administration has weaponized U.S. foreign assistance programs and other means to promote censorship in Brazil and crack down on free speech that would be protected under our U.S. Constitution here at home,” said Rep. Smith.

Rep. Jordan: FBI ‘facilitated’ censorship requests

Smith was joined by House Judiciary Committee Chair Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH), who also acknowledged the federal government’s part in Brazil’s censorship.

“The House Judiciary Committee and the Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government have uncovered how the FBI under the Biden-Harris Administration facilitated a foreign government’s censorship requests against Americans,” said Rep. Jordan.

US interferes in Brazil’s election

In 2022, Brazil held elections in which socialist totalitarian Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva was declared the winner, ousting incumbent Right-wing President Jair Bolsonaro. According to reporter Tucker Carlson, the United States interfered with Brazil’s election. Carlson repoerted that CIA Director William Burns pressured Bolsonaro to accept the election results before it even took place. Reuters similarly reported that Burns called Bolsonaro before the election to make sure he would not dispute the outcome. 

Bolsonaro, a Trump ally and free speech advocate, has since taken refuge in Florida.

Moraes arrests election protesters, inspired by J6 crackdown

The election results were widely disputed based on publicly available data and mass protests broke out across the country. Moraes had protestors arrested en masse and without due process, saying he drew inspiration from the US government’s response to January 6th. He also ordered the arrest of anyone who questioned the election results and demanded that social media platforms suspend them.

Brazil creates its own January 6th

Civil unrest over the election continued for months. On January 8th, 2023, a mass protest broke out at Brazil’s congressional headquarters that closely resembled the one on January 6th, 2021 in Washington, DC. During the protest, a small number of attendees smashed windows and committed vandalism. The protest was described as a “riot” and used as a pretext to persecute Right-wing Brazilians. Like January 6th, it occurred at Brazil’s government buildings, sparked similar backlash, similar worldwide media coverage, similar condemnations by world leaders, and raised similar questions. There were also similar reports of agent provocateurs and doors being opened from the inside.

“Donald Trump was taken out with a rigged election, no question about it, and at the time he was taken out, I said, ‘President Bolsonaro is going to be taken down,’” said Wanderlei Silva, a 59-year-old Brazilian citizen. “The Democrats staged that and invaded the Capitol,” he added. “The same way they staged it here.”  

Wellington Luiz Firmino was one of those present at the January 8th protest, during which he climbed on top of a government building to film the event. Like thousands of other Bolsonaro and Trump supporters, he was arrested and prosecuted harshly. And, like many January 6th attendees, he had the impression from authorities that he was permitted to be there.

“I'm innocent, I just exercised my right to raise the flag from my country to the highest point of Brasília, with full permission from the authorities who were there in that place,” he said.

In March, Firmino was sentenced to 17 years in prison. He had not vandalized any property or committed any violence. Following his conviction, Elon Musk commented: “Unless something is missing here, the punishment is far in excess of the crime.” 

Like the US Department of Justice, Brazilian authorities prosecuted protestors not just for trespassing but also for supposedly supporting the violent acts of other demonstrators. In Firmino's case, he was punished for “celebrating” the acts of other protestors.

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