Years Of US-UK Military & Intel Planning Behind Sweeping Brazil Censorship, Evidence Suggests

Michael Shellenberger | Years Of US-UK Military And Intelligence Planning Behind Sweeping Brazil Censorship, Evidence SuggestsShow more

Secret evidence, specialized spy units, and permanent bans on populists were key tactics developed by government operatives_

Late last night, the Judiciary Committee of the U.S. House of Representatives released over 500 pages of confidential Brazilian court documents relating to censorship demands on X, formerly Twitter. The Committee had obtained them from X through its subpoena powers.

The documents show a single Superior Electoral Court (TSE) Justice, Alexandre de Moraes, demanding permanent bans on over 150 elected officials and journalists. De Moraes demanded these bans in secret processes, without explanation or means of appeal, and across social media platforms. Given the dependence of elected leaders on social media, these demands for bans may constitute electoral interference.

In one case, De Moraes demanded that all major social media platforms, including at least one, Twitter, which did not publish the offending material, ban a federal Congressman, Marcel Van Hattem. The TSE had claimed that Van Hattem had criticized the election results. Not only had Van Hattan’s video not been related to the elections, but it was also a criticism of the Labor Department. It was released one day before the election.

In many ways, Brazil’s sweeping censorship system is unique to Brazil. Brazil’s Censorship Industrial Complex is located in the judiciary rather than in the executive branch, as it is in Europe, in the European Commission, and the U.S., in the Department of Defense, Department of Homeland Security, National Science Foundation, and other agencies.

However, in other ways, Brazil’s censorship simply reflects the most advanced form of the Censorship Industrial Complex vision created by US and UK government officials, particularly ones working for the military and intelligence agencies.

Our work revealed that current and former agents from the US Department of Defense, the CIA, the Department of Homeland Security, and the British Ministry of Defense all developed comprehensive censorship programs. The Department of Defense and the National Science Foundation have been caught funding the creation of censorship tools, including AI-based ones, for Facebook, Twitter, and other social media platforms to engage in mass censorship.

Beginning in early 2017, several military and intelligence agencies and agents from the US and UK governments developed similar censorship tactics that Brazil's Superior Electoral Court (TSE) was caught using. Those tactics included…

https://x.com/shellenberger/status/1781047600663122257