Supporters of former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro protested today in Sao Paulo, on Independence Day, dissatisfied with the government's decision to block the X social network, which they say is evidence of political persecution.
Today's march is a test of Bolsonaro's capacity to mobilize his supporters ahead of municipal elections in October, even though a Brazilian court has barred him from running for any office until 2030.
It is also something of a referendum on the X network itself, the blocking of which has angered even some of Bolsonaro's opponents, fanning the flames of deep-rooted political polarization in Brazil.
"A country without freedom cannot celebrate anything on this day," Bolsonaro wrote on his Instagram account on September 4, urging Brazilians to stay away from the official Independence Day parades and instead join him in today's protest in Sao Paulo.
Supreme Court Judge Alexander de Moraes banned X (formerly Twitter) on August 30, following a months-long dispute with its owner, billionaire Elon Musk, over the limits of free speech.
The powerful judge has led efforts to ban far-right users from spreading misinformation on social media, and stepped up his crackdown after Bolsonaro's supporters stormed Congress and the presidential palace on January 8, 2023, in an attempt to overturn the results of the presidential election.
A more controversial component of his ruling was the imposition of a whopping $9.000 fine on Brazilians who use virtual private networks (VPNs) to access Ix.
The ban has angered Bolsonaro's allies, who have accused the judiciary and the government of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva of colluding to silence their movement.
Musk, a self-proclaimed "free speech absolutist", also called on Brazilians to rally en masse, re-sharing a post claiming X's ban had woken people up "to the fact that freedom is not free and that they should fight for it ."
But the judge's decision to ban Iks was far from arbitrary, as it was supported by colleagues - judges of the Supreme Court.
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