After denouncing Moraes, Glenn Greenwald becomes the target of the left

Applauded by the Brazilian left for disclosing, in 2019, conversations by text message attributed to former judge Sergio Moro (União Brasil-PR), former prosecutor Deltan Dallagnol (Podemos-PR) and other members of the Lava Jato operation obtained from From hacker invasions to cell phones, the American journalist Glenn Greenwald no longer enjoys the honors of much of the left.

News website founder The Intercept, supporter of President Lula (PT), defender of the thesis that the impeachment of Dilma Rousseff (PT) would have been a “coup” and scathing critic of Jair Bolsonaro (PL), the journalist, who is married to the former federal deputy David Miranda (PSOL) and has lived in Brazil for 17 years, has plenty of credentials to please the Brazilian left. However, Glenn is a staunch defender of the constitutional text on freedom of expression to the point of raising such a defense beyond his own political positions, which led to a split with the militancy of his ideological pole.

The American has used his international influence – which he gained mainly through reports that pointed to the existence of secret global surveillance programs by the US government – ​​to denounce authoritarian and unconstitutional measures by the Brazilian Judiciary to the world.

On his Twitter account, which has almost two million followers, he denounces that there is a regime of censorship and restriction of rights in force in Brazil under the command of Alexandre de Moraes, minister of the Federal Supreme Court (STF) and president of the Court Superior Electoral (TSE). For him, in addition to repeated censures, arrests and precautionary measures imposed on critics of the Judiciary, the minister has been taking abusive decisions that violate due process of law.

The journalist’s statements on the social network even reached the owner of Twitter, Elon Musk, who classified the measures underway at the minister’s initiative as “extremely worrying”. There are a series of accusations against Moraes of authoritarianism directed especially at supporters of former president Jair Bolsonaro (PL), but which have already turned against leftist figures who dared to criticize the magistrate.

Glenn has echoed, in particular, two reports from the New York Times, the main US news website, published at the end of last year pointing out arbitrary acts by the magistrate. “As noted by New York Times, a sign of how tyrannical Moraes’ power has become is that people are afraid to publicly criticize him. Even a senior Big Tech executive only did so anonymously. Many Brazilian jurists do not want to speak openly out of fear,” tweeted Greenwald this Monday (16).

But the criticisms are not restricted to the minister and are also directed at press vehicles that have been silent in the face of abuses and, on some occasions, celebrated such measures. Finally, the journalist’s target turns to the militancy called “progressive”. For Glenn, the massive support of the Brazilian left for Moraes’ conduct reveals “the very authoritarian face of part of this ideological wing”. “The more this part of the left shows its true face, the better,” he tweeted on Tuesday (17).

As a result, Glenn was blacklisted by militancy and has been labeled, among other terms, a “bolsonarista”, fascist and terrorist. Social network users aligned to the left have also defended the use of violence against the journalist and even his deportation from the country. This Tuesday (17), when commenting on the attacks received, the American even referred to the perpetrators of the attacks as “sociopaths”. “As Marina Silva said, it was not Bolsonaro who invented the ‘hate office’. It was the party he ran against in 2018. All this for the crime of questioning King Alexandre de Moraes”, he vented.

Unyielding defense of free speech

Recent episodes are not the first time that Glenn Greenwald has put prestige with the left at risk to defend freedom of expression and respect for due process of law for all, regardless of political bias.

In October 2020, a few days before the elections for the presidency of the United States, the journalist decided to leave his own The Intercept by claiming that the vehicle tried to censor a column of his in which he criticized then-candidate Joe Biden, rival of Donald Trump. At the time, he accused the direction of the vehicle of abdicating its journalistic function to manipulate the elections using journalism in order to favor Biden’s election.

Last year, Glenn Greenwald was one of the first left-wing public figures to acknowledge that Monark’s remarks that led to his cancellation were not racist. In February 2022, Monark suffered a massive cancellation on the internet, led largely by influencers and users of social networks linked to the left for having defended a broad concept of freedom of expression, in which apology for totalitarian regimes such as Nazism and Communism would not be considered a crime, as it is today in the United States.

Glenn, incidentally, was responsible for mediating the migration of Monark’s channel to the Rumble video platform after the presenter had his YouTube channel, with more than 3 million followers, demonetized by the platform due to the repercussions of the case.

In June of last year, the American was also against the first censorship imposed on the left by Moraes. After being the target of several criticisms on the social networks of the Partido da Causa Operária (PCO), with a communist bias, the minister ordered the suspension of all profiles of the acronym on social networks. In addition, he included the party in the so-called “Fake News Inquiry” and summoned Rui Costa Pimenta, president of the party, to testify about the posts.

At the time, Glenn also tried to bring the case to an international audience. “In Brazil, a small Communist Party has become one of the most steadfast and principled in defending freedom of expression and against the dominant consensus of censorship,” he tweeted.

Glenn Greenwald is accused of having a “bolsonarista” position

On the night of this Wednesday (18), Glenn participated in a debate at Folha de S. Paulo with sociologist Celso Rocha de Barros. Barros’ invitation was given on Twitter in response to the journalist’s publications about Moraes’ conduct. In the message with the invitation, the sociologist said that Glenn would be “expressing the Bolsonarist point of view on the recent decisions of the STF”.

In the debate, before exposing his points, the American countered criticism he has received that he does not understand how Brazilian legislation works and would be trying to import American ideas to Brazil. “Freedom of expression and the right to due process are not American values, nor are Bolsonarist values. Both rights are explicitly guaranteed by the Brazilian Constitution,” he said.

He also highlighted the decision of the STF that maintained indefinitely the resolution that expanded Alexandre de Moraes’ police power to “combat fake news” ex officio. The determination was valid only during the 2022 elections, but it is still in force, which has allowed the minister to continue censoring from ordinary users to elected politicians. Social networks must comply with the blocking order within 2 hours under penalty of a fine of up to R$ 150,000.

“None of the people who were targeted by this order were notified of what he did, nor were they given an opportunity to contest the allegations. There is not the slightest due process”.

To refute the sociologist’s accusations that Moraes’ conduct is linked to the fight against a coup d’état whose attempt would have materialized in the invasion of the buildings of the Three Powers, Glenn highlighted that the abusive measures did not start during the elections, but there are more of two years.

Main statements on social media

Below are some of the tweets posted in recent days by Glenn Greenwald about Moraes’ conduct:

01/10: Is there now, or has there ever been, a modern democracy where a single judge exercises the power that Alexandre de Moraes has in Brazil? I can’t think of any examples even close.

01/13: What right does a Brazilian judge have to order foreign platforms to ban politicians and journalists from their platforms and threaten them with massive fines if they don’t censor on command?

01/13: What right does a Brazilian judge have to order foreign platforms to ban politicians and journalists from their platforms and threaten them with massive fines if they don’t censor on command?

01/15: I think it’s dangerous that a judge has so much power: start his own charges and then declare the accused guilty without trial or notice.

01/15: Moraes’ specific power – to unilaterally order that whoever he wants to be silenced, without due process and in secret – was justified to protect the election. But the election is over and – like all supposedly temporary extreme powers (Patriot Act) – it is still in use.

01/17: By great coincidence, the left believes that censorship of everyone on the right is fair, while censorship of everyone on the left is unfair and an abuse of power.

01/17: In addition to the issue of censorship is the lack of due process. These orders are secret. Targets have no knowledge of them, let alone an opportunity to learn the allegations and dispute them.