Twitter owner attended meeting with government after January 8

Members of the Lula Government’s Communication Secretariat and the Ministry of Justice met with the main digital platforms after the January 8 demonstrations, according to Folha de São Paulo.

Representatives from Twitter (renamed X), Meta Instagram, Facebook and WhatsApp), TikTok and Google (YouTube), in addition to Telegram, which was invited but did not participate in the meeting; discussed ways to control posts on the networks, where much of the organization of the demonstrations on the 8th took place.

According to Folha, Elon Musk would have asked to participate in the conversation and heard from government members that the danger had not passed, there was still a risk of a coup, and that Twitter needed to apply its own policies to control cases in which posts violated the rule. which prohibits “inciting illegal conduct to prevent the implementation of election results”.

Musk told representatives of the Brazilian government that he was happy that the situation in the country was under control, that democracy was solid, and that Brazil was very important to the company.

Musk defended freedom of expression in posts

However, Musk would have highlighted “the importance of defending freedom of expression” and examining the “context” of publications. He said the company would continue to follow the law, even if there were excesses in court rulings by a ‘determined judge’.

Government interlocutors attributed the mention to Minister Alexandre de Moraes, who, even outside the country on January 8, determined the removal of the Governor of the Federal District, Ibaneis Rocha (MDB) and made impositions on digital platforms for publishing messages.

Moraes determined that Facebook, TikTok and Twitter would have two hours to block a series of channels, profiles and accounts and preserve their content, under penalty of a daily fine of R$ 100,000.

In Moraes’ view, the companies omitted themselves, acted with negligence and imprudence. When determining the removal of accounts and profiles, its objective was to prevent more people from organizing themselves through social networks and messaging applications to go to Brasília and move forward with the coup attempt, as in a video that called people to “war” and encouraged the invasion of public buildings, which violated Twitter’s rules.

Even so, and despite Musk’s promises, nothing was done. The tweet —and the video— are still available on Twitter (renamed X), months after the January 8 demonstrations.