It is simple to get distracted by the barbs, jabs and noise of ongoing and really public dispute between the richest man on the earth and a merciless justice system in Brazil's highest court. Elon Musk, the billionaire and owner of X, usually posts his contempt for Supreme Court Judge Alexandre de Moraes – a person whom Musk has known as “dictator”” And “Brazil's Darth Vader.” He makes these comments on a social media platform that Moraes has banned in Latin America's most populous country as a part of a long-running campaign against disinformation.

But as Expert in Brazilian digital lawI see this as greater than only a bitter personal feud. X's legal battle with Brazil's Supreme Court raises necessary questions on platform regulation and the way to combat disinformation while protecting freedom of expression. And while the main focus is on Brazil and Musk, it's a debate that reverberates all over the world.

Countdown to the massive fight

In August 2024, the situation between Musk and Moraes got here to a head, but this battle had been brewing for years.

In 2014, Brazil adopted the “Civil rights framework for the Internet” or the “Internet Bill of Rights” because it is often known. This bipartisan framework for Internet regulation outlined principles to guard user privacy and free speech while Introducing penalties for platforms that violate the principles.

It included a system of “judicial notice and takedown” whereby web platforms would only be held chargeable for harmful user-generated content in the event that they did not remove the content after receiving a court order to achieve this.

The approach should strike a balance between protecting free expression and removing illegal and harmful content. It prevents social media platforms, messaging apps and online forums from being robotically held answerable for users' posts and empowers courts to intervene when vital.

However, the 2014 law doesn’t provide detailed rules for content moderation and leaves much of the responsibility within the hands of platforms equivalent to Facebook and X.

And the rise of disinformation lately, especially concerning the 2022 Brazilian presidential electionshas shown the constraints of the framework.

The then President Right-wing populist Jair Bolsonaroand his followers were accused of using social media platforms like X to Spreading untruthssow doubts concerning the integrity of the Brazilian electoral system and fuel violence. When Bolsonaro defeated within the vote by the leftist Luiz Inácio Lula da Silvaa web based campaign of election denial flourished. culminated within the storming on January 8, 2023 of the Brazilian Congress, the Supreme Court and the Presidential Palace by Bolsonaro’s supporters – an event similar the riots within the US Capitol two years earlier.

The fight becomes personal…

In response to the disinformation campaigns and attacks, Brazil’s Supreme Court launched two investigations – the Investigation into digital militias and the Anti-Democratic Acts Investigation – to analyze the groups involved within the plot.

As a part of these investigations, the Supreme Court ordered social media platforms – equivalent to Facebook, Instagram and X – handy over IP addresses and block accounts linked to those illegal activities.

But now Musk, who describes himself as Fundamentalist of free speechhad acquired the platform and promised to support free speech, restore suspended accounts, and significantly calm down the platform's content moderation policies.

As a result, Musk has been openly defying the Supreme Court's orders for the reason that starting. In April 2024, X's global government affairs The team began informing the general public about what they considered to be the Supreme Court’s “illegal” demands.

The dispute escalated in late August when X’s legal representative in Brazil resigned and Musk refused to appoint a brand new legal representative – a move that Moraes interpreted as an attempt to avoid the law. In response ordered the ban of the platform on August 31, 2024.

The move got here with heavy penalties for Brazilians trying to avoid the ban. Anyone using virtual private networks, or VPNs, to access X will face each day fines of nearly $9,000 – greater than the common annual income of many Brazilians. These decisions were confirmed by a panel of 5 Supreme Court judges on September 2, 2024. However, given criticism of the judiciary's overstepping of powers, the plenary of 11 judges will debate and possibly reconsider this a part of Moraes' decision.

… then becomes political

The battle between X and Brazil on the Supreme Court is deeply politicized. On September 7 Thousands of Bolsonaro supporters took part in a protest for freedom of expression. Lula's government and the Supreme Court have come under fire, with the opposition and right-wing factions calling the suspension of the platform a Symbol of state abuse.

This rhetoric stands in sharp contrast to the more balanced, deliberate efforts to control platforms that began over a decade ago with the Marco Civil da Internet. It also underscores the challenge of striking a balance between free expression and combating disinformation in a deeply polarized environment—an issue that Brazil is much from alone in facing.

The political pressure surrounding the ban on X doesn’t bode well for Brazil's ongoing efforts to counter online disinformation and hold platforms accountable for harmful content.

“Bill on fake news”, because it is known as by the Brazilian media, was introduced by the country’s Congress in 2020. It goals to create control mechanisms and increase transparency regarding political promoting and content moderation policies.

But despite good intentions and a really relaxed approach to “regulated self-regulation,” the ultimate version of the bill was blocked within the Brazilian Parliament after three years of debate.

It follows a campaign by right-wing politicians and Lobbyists of the foremost technology corporations who described the law as “Censorship law”, arguing that it could impair free speech and stifle political discourse. At this point, the fate of the bill seems uncertain.

Meanwhile, on August 23, The Supreme Court announced that a legal review to be held in November will address two key parts of the Marco Civil case.

The first is the Legal Notice and Takedown procedure, which Critics complain is just too slow and allows platforms to opt out of implementing more robust content moderation mechanisms. Proponents maintain that judicial oversight is vital to forestall platforms from arbitrarily removing content, which may lead to censorship.

The second area under review is the a part of the Marco Civil that sets the penalties for corporations that don’t comply with the principles. The debate revolves around whether the present penalties, particularly the suspension of services, are proportionate and constitutional. Critics argue that blocking a complete platform constitutes a violation of users’ rights to freedom of expression and access to information, while supporters insist that it’s a vital tool to make sure compliance with Brazilian laws and preserve sovereignty.

The fate of the “fake news law” and the Supreme Court’s review could set latest legal standards for platforms in Brazil and determine how far the country can go in enforcing its laws against global technology corporations to combat disinformation.

And while the Supreme Court did circuitously link the review to the continued feud with X, the fight with Musk provides the inevitable political backdrop to discussions concerning the future direction of Brazil's experiment in platform regulation. The fallout from this seemingly personal dispute could subsequently have significant regulatory consequences for Brazil and potentially other countries as well.

RIO DE JANEIRO – Sergio Mendes, the celebrated Brazilian musician whose 1966 hit “Mas Que Nada” made him a world star and launched an extended, Grammy-winning profession, has died after months of battling the results of Long Covid. He was 83 years old.

The death of the Brazilian pianist, songwriter and arranger was confirmed in an announcement from his family on Thursday.

“His wife and musical partner of the past 54 years, Gracinha Leporace Mendes, was by his side, as were his beloved children,” the statement said on Friday. “Mendes last performed to sold-out and enthusiastic crowds in Paris, London and Barcelona in November 2023.”

Born in Niterói, Rio de Janeiro's twin city, Mendes studied classical music at a conservatory before joining jazz groups. In the late Fifties and early Nineteen Sixties, he began playing Bossa Nova when the genre was popular in Rio's nightclub scene with Antonio Carlos Jobim, João Gilberto and others.

In 1962 they traveled to New York for a Bossa Nova Festival at Carnegie Hall. During the trip, Cannonball Adderley invited Mendes to collaborate on the album “Cannonball Adderley and The Bossa Rio Sextet”. After signing with Atlantic Records, his first American record, “The Swinger from Rio”, was created.

Two years later, Mendes moved to California and formed Brazil '64, which evolved into Brazil '66 after he added two female singers. The group's debut album, produced by Herb Alpert, included “Mas Que Nada.” “Mas Que Nada” was a medium-tempo samba number sung entirely in Portuguese, originally released in 1963 by composer Jorge Ben Sor and updated three years later by Mendes, who had been playing the song in clubs and gave it a jazzier, harder edge.

“I started a band called Brasil '66,” he told The Guardian in 2019. “I've always had instrumental sections, but when I added the two singers – Lani Hall and Bibi Vogel – a different sound emerged. We recorded the song in Los Angeles, with me, drums, bass and guitar performing live.”

Mendes' version was a worldwide hit and helped proceed the Brazilian music boom of the Nineteen Sixties. In 2006, a contemporary version of the song performed by the Black Eyed Peas topped the US charts. It was included on his album “Timeless,” which was produced by will.i.am and likewise featured Stevie Wonder, Justin Timberlake and John Legend, amongst others.

“Sergio Mendes was my brother from another country,” trumpeter Alpert wrote on Facebook, posting a photograph from a long time ago of himself sitting next to Mendes on the piano. “He was a true friend and an extremely gifted musician who brought Brazilian music in all its forms with elegance to the whole world.”

Mendes' other hits were an eclectic mix, starting from covers of the Beatles' “The Fool on the Hill” and “With a Little Help from My Friends” to his own Brazilian rendition of “Magalenha.” Mendes also composed the soundtrack for the film “Pelé” with saxophonist Gerry Mulligan and even produced an album recorded by the nice Brazilian footballer.

Mendes won the Grammy Award for Best World Music Album in 1992 for “Brasileiro” and two Latin Grammy Awards. He also received an Oscar nomination for Best Original Song in 2012 for “Real in Rio” from the animated film “Rio.”

Mendes' family said they’d announce details of the funeral and memorial service at a later date.

Originally published: September 7, 2024 at 11:18 am

SAO PAULO — A judge of the Brazilian Supreme Court on Friday ordered the suspension of Elon Musk’s Social media giant X in Brazil after the tech billionaire refused to appoint a legal representative within the country, in response to a replica of the choice obtained by The Associated Press.

This move further escalates the months-long dispute between the 2 men over freedom of expression, right-wing extremist accounts and misinformation.

Judge Alexandre de Moraes warned Musk on Wednesday evening that X might be blocked in Brazil if he didn’t comply together with his request to appoint a representative, giving him 24 hours to achieve this. The company has not had a representative within the country for the reason that starting of this month.

In his ruling, de Moraes gave web service providers and app stores five days to dam access to X and said the platform would remain blocked until it complied together with his orders. He also said individuals or firms using virtual private networks (VPNs) to access X would face a every day tremendous of fifty,000 reais ($8,900).

“Elon Musk showed his total disregard for Brazilian sovereignty and especially for the judiciary by presenting himself as a true supranational entity, immune to the laws of each individual country,” de Moraes wrote.

Brazil is a crucial marketplace for X, which has struggled with a lack of advertisers since Musk bought the previous Twitter in 2022. About 40 million Brazilians, a couple of fifth of the population, access X no less than once a month, in response to market research group Emarketer.

Late Thursday, X posted on its official Global Government Affairs page that it expected de Moraes to shut down X “simply because we would not comply with his illegal orders to censor his political opponents.”

“When we tried to defend ourselves in court, Judge de Moraes threatened our Brazilian legal representative with jail time. Even after she resigned, he froze all of her bank accounts,” the corporate wrote. “Our appeals to his blatantly illegal actions were either dismissed or ignored. Judge de Moraes' colleagues on the Supreme Court are either unwilling or unable to stand up to him.”

X clashed with de Moraes because the corporate refused to comply with instructions to dam users.

Among the accounts that the platform has previously closed on Brazilian orders are MPs from former President Jair Bolsonaro's right-wing party and activists accused of undermining Brazilian democracy.

Musk, a self-described “champion of absolute freedom of expression,” has repeatedly claimed that the judge's actions amount to censorship, and his argument has been echoed by Brazil's political right. He has often insulted de Moraes on his platform, calling him a dictator and a tyrant.

De Moraes's defense team has argued that his actions against X were legal, supported by the vast majority of the court and aimed to guard democracy at a time when it’s under threat. His ruling on Friday relies on Brazilian law that requires foreign firms to have representation within the country in order that they might be notified when legal proceedings are underway against them.

Because operators are aware of the widely publicized stalemate and have an obligation to comply with an order from de Moraes, and doing so is simple, X might be offline as early as 12 hours after receiving the orders, says Luca Belli, coordinator of the Technology and Society Center on the Getulio Vargas Foundation, a university in Rio de Janeiro.
The shutdown will not be an isolated case in Brazil.

Individual Brazilian judges shut down Meta's WhatsApp, the country's most generally used messaging app, several times in 2015 and 2016 because the corporate refused to comply with police requests for user data. In 2022, de Moraes threatened the messaging app Telegram with a nationwide shutdown since it repeatedly ignored requests from Brazilian authorities to dam profiles and supply information. He ordered Telegram to appoint an area representative; the corporate eventually complied and remained online.

X and its predecessor Twitter have been banned in several countries, mostly in authoritarian regimes comparable to Russia, China, Iran, Myanmar, North Korea, Venezuela and Turkmenistan. Other countries comparable to Pakistan, Turkey and Egypt have also temporarily blocked X, mostly to crack down on dissent and unrest. Twitter was banned in Egypt after the Arab Spring uprisings, which some called the “Twitter Revolution,” but has since been allowed again.

A search on X on Friday found that lots of of Brazilian users were on the lookout for VPNs that would potentially allow them to proceed using the platform by making it appear as in the event that they were logging in from outside the country. It was not immediately clear how Brazilian authorities would police the practice and impose the fines cited by de Moraes.

Mariana de Souza Alves Lima, known by her name MariMoon, showed her 1.4 million followers on X that she was going to competing social network BlueSkyposted a screenshot and said: “That’s where I’m going.”

X said that the organization desired to publish de Moraes' “illegal demands” and the related court documents “in the interest of transparency.”

Also on Thursday evening, Starlink, Musk's satellite web service provider, announced on X that de Moraes had frozen his funds this week, stopping the corporate from accessing any transactions within the country where it has over 250,000 customers.

“This order is based on the unsubstantiated finding that Starlink should be responsible for the fines imposed – unconstitutionally – on X. It was issued in secret and without granting Starlink the due process guaranteed by the Brazilian Constitution. We intend to resolve the matter legally,” Starlink said in its statement.

Musk responded to people sharing the reports of the payment freeze, adding insults aimed toward de Moraes. “This guy @Alexandre is an outright criminal of the worst kind, posing as a judge,” he wrote.

Musk later posted on X that SpaceX, which operates Starlink, would supply free web service in Brazil “until the matter is resolved” because “we cannot receive payment but do not want to cut anyone off.”

In his decision, de Moraes said he ordered the freezing of Starlink's assets because X didn’t find the money for in its accounts to pay the increasing fines and on the grounds that the 2 firms were a part of the identical economic group.

SAO PAULO – Brazilian federal police accuse former President Jair Bolsonaro of embezzling 6.8 million Brazilian reals (about $1.2 million) price of knickknack while he was in office, in line with an investigation report unsealed by the Supreme Court on Monday.

Bolsonaro was charged last week with embezzlement, asset laundering and criminal association in reference to the posh jewelry from Saudi Arabia. The investigation increases pressure on the far-right politician, who ruled from 2019 to 2022 before losing his re-election to Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. He has already lost his political rights until 2030.

Bolsonaro has not commented on the indictment, but has previously denied any wrongdoing related to the jewellery.

The police report claims there was “a criminal organization to embezzle valuable gifts received by former President Jair Bolsonaro because of his position.” The jewelry included diamond-encrusted Rolex and Patek Phillipe watches, a necklace, rings and cufflinks, amongst others. The report says a few of the gifts got to government employees acting on Bolsonaro's behalf during trips abroad.

The Associated Press reported on the costs against Bolsonaro on Thursday, citing information from two sources accustomed to the investigation. It was not until the report was published by Brazil's Supreme Court that a comprehensive overview of the allegations was made available.

Brazilian Attorney General Paulo Gonet will analyze the police report and choose whether to press charges and convey the far-right politician to justice.

If the jewellery had been a present from Saudi Arabia to Brazil, it could have been exempt from tax. However, Bolsonaro wouldn’t have been allowed to maintain it for himself. Instead, it could have been incorporated into the presidential collection.

The police report said Bolsonaro's family received “proceeds from the illegal sale” of the jewellery. The investigation found that the funds were deposited by the previous president without using the Brazilian banking system to hide their origin, the report said.

In his first public speech for the reason that allegations were made public, at a conservative conference in southern Brazil on Saturday, the 69-year-old former army captain didn’t comment on the problem. However, he and his lawyers have previously denied any wrongdoing within the case and in other of his actions which can be under investigation.

Argentine President Javier Milei, one among Bolsonaro's allies, accused Brazil of promoting a legal witch hunt against the previous president.

The police report released on Monday charges ten other people, including two of Bolsonaro's lawyers, a retired army general and a former energy minister in his government.

The document records an exchange between Bolsonaro and a former top adviser that means the Brazilian president knew that a few of the jewelry in query was to be auctioned within the United States. Federal police said Bolsonaro's phone conversations also included references to the auction house Fortuna Auction.

A second package of luxury jewelry seized by customs was also addressed to Bolsonaro, whose government had repeatedly tried to release the jewellery, in line with police. The then-president received the package on November 29, 2022, the report said.

No matter where you discover Karrin Allyson, you possibly can make sure that she is in good company.

One of jazz's biggest polyglot singers – she has developed an intensive repertoire of songs in French and Portuguese – the New York-based singer delves back into the Brazilian songbook on her recent album, “A Kiss for Brazil” (Origin Records). It's a musical journey she's taken before, most notably on 1999's seductive “From Paris to Rio” and 2008's “Imagina: Songs of Brasil,” each released on Concord Records, the label that released her first dozen albums starting in 1993.

The five-time Grammy nominee had no intention of starting one other Brazilian jazz project, “but my desire to sing with Rosa Passos spurred me to do it,” she said, referring to the favored singer and guitarist from Salvador da Bahia, the best living bossa nova artist. “I knew she was coming to New York to play with Kenny Barron and Ron Carter at Lincoln Center, so I organized it.”

Allyson featured Passos on two tracks from “A Kiss For Brazil,” the album she’s going to debut June 30 at Bach Dancing & Dynamite Society, where she’s going to perform with a stellar Los Angeles combo of pianist Miro Sprague, bassist Karl McComas and drummer Dan Schnelle. “They work together as a trio and are a very tight unit,” said Allyson, who also accompanies herself on piano on a few of the tracks.

Sprague has been Allyson's primary West Coast musician for many of the past decade, including several appearances within the Bay Area. As certainly one of the Southland's leading accompanists, he has made forays north in recent times with artists resembling saxophonist Remy Le Boeuf and singer Sara Gazarek.

Passos won't be with Bach on Sunday, but Allyson is teaming up with one other high quality singer at Oakland's Sound Room on July 5 and 6, when Kenny Washington joins her for 2 evenings of musical conversation. They've formed a solid mutual admiration community over the past few years, attending one another's shows and infrequently sitting in together. But the Sound Room engagement is their first formal collaboration.

“I like the way Karrin is never pretentious about her singing,” said Washington, who plays June 28 and 29 with a trio led by pianist John R. Burr on the Keys Jazz Bistro. This monthly gig has done much to make the North Beach club certainly one of the realm's premier jazz singing venues.

“I like her for her honesty and musicality, on the piano and in her singing. She just sings the songs the way the legendary artists used to sing. She doesn't try to embellish them in a non-musical way.”

Allyson met Karen Van Leuven, who founded and runs the Sound Room together with her husband Robert Bradsby, at Dizzy's Club once they each saw Washington's show at Jazz at Lincoln Center a number of years ago. Van Leuven and Bradsby have been big supporters of Washington for the reason that New Orleans native got here to San Francisco in 1995. They were immediately excited by the thought of ​​presenting him in a special context with Allyson.

“We'll do duets and some things separately,” Allyson said. “It's billed as a musical conversation and we have. One of our favorite songs to sing together is 'The Shadow of Your Smile.'”

As a jazz singer who doesn't perform with a refined chart, Washington likes to let the music emerge on stage, a situation many singers aren't equipped for. He's had a number of memorable performances sharing the stage with Kim Nalley, “where it feels more like there's a horn player on stage,” he said. “The most important thing with another singer is that you encourage each other and understand each other. With Kim, and definitely with Karrin, we go up there without much preparation, and most of the time it just works.”

Allyson's performances aren't exactly a homecoming, but she has some deep ties to the Bay Area that predate Carl Jefferson's signing to Concord, a outstanding singer's label. She grew up in Omaha, but after her parents split up, her mother moved to the Bay Area, and frequent visits led to her moving west to complete highschool.

“I spent my senior year in the Oakland Hills at Holy Names High School,” she said. “I participated in theater in Hayward and did a few plays there,” before enrolling on the University of Nebraska Omaha, where she majored in classical piano and minored in French.

Some three many years after the discharge of her debut album, Concord's I Didn't Know About You, in 1992, Allyson continues to expand the promise of that eclectic program, moving on in style in the corporate of other musical masters.

---

KARRIN ALLYSON

With Trio: June 30, 3:30 p.m.; Bach Dancing & Dynamite Society, Half Moon Bay; $45-55 (live stream $10); bachddsoc.org

With Kenny Washington: July 5–6, 7:30 p.m.; The Sound Room, Oakland; $42.50–$50; www.soundroom.org

Kenny Washington: 7 and 9 p.m., June 28-29; Keys Jazz Bistro, San Francisco; $35; keysjazzbistro.com