BRAZIL: Lula Forced to Withdraw 'Censorship Bill' From Congress Vote to Avoid a Crushing Defeat, Even After Releasing Budget Money to 'Bribe' Deputies
Supreme Court Justices Personally Threatened Congressmen - Federal Police to Question Google, Spotify and Meta Heads for Their Stance Against the Proposed Legislation
It didn't take long for the Lula administration from hell to put out its authoritarian claws and try to 'regulate' (censure) social media, where the opposition to the government is vast and entrenched.
The Censorship Bill was up for a vote tonight, with the government trying to steamroll the legislation against popular sentiment and regardless of any meaningful political support.
PL 2630, made infamous as the deeply unpopular 'Censorship Bill', has garnered opposition from wide segments of the society - from conservative Bolsonaro's party, to Lula's own vice-president Geraldo Alckmin center-left party, to all the Social Media companies operating in Brazil.
Boot-licking legacy media in Brazil, never the ones to disobey their globalist masters, is - of course - rooting for their own demise in the form of new Government censorship powers entailed by the proposal.
During the day (Tuesday, May 2nd) it became clear that the Lula government didn't have the votes to approve the bill, with its leadership in Congress pleading for the vote to be delayed.
This is hardly surprising, since the government has no majority and is now living with two different Congressual investigations that threaten key players in the administration.
Fearing the impending defeat, Lula's top aides launched a two pronged approach: the carrot and the stick.
On one hand, Lula ordered the Finance Ministry to pay budget provisions sponsored by congressmen, to the tune of 11 billion reals (over US$2 billion).
On the other hand, members of the chamber of deputies denounced that some Supreme Court Justices had personally started to threaten those deputies with ongoing lawsuits in the court, promising lenience in case they flipped to vote with the government.
As you see, all means, legal or otherwise, were used in Lula's fight to silence the Brazilian people. But it was not enough, so the same leaderships that pushed for urgency in the voting of this matter had to postpone the vote lest they suffer a humiliating defeat.
Of course, whenever Lula's cause is endangered, he can always count on tyrannical Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes. He, now, aims to make companies clarify the reasons for having authorized ads on platforms against the Censorship Bill.
"Justice Alexandre de Moraes, of the Federal Supreme Court (STF), determined this Tuesday (02) that the Federal Police question the [Brazilian] heads of the companies Google, Spotify, and Meta – which control Instagram, WhatsApp and Facebook. The deposition must take place within five days.
The PF must determine whether there was 'abuse of economic power' or 'illicit contribution to the misinformation practiced by digital militias on social networks', says the magistrate's decision."
PL 2630 opens up room for a restriction on freedom of expression in Brazil.
"The project is sponsored by the government of Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT) and by the speaker of the Chamber of Deputies, Arthur Lira (PP-AL), who are working together to try to obtain votes in favor of the bill."
In private conversations, congress members say that this vote will seal Lira's fate as president (speaker) of the Chamber of Deputies: if it is rejected, he will be 'dethroned'.
"On the internet, coordinated work is carried out by leftwing influencers […]. The target, this time, are the Big Techs, especially Google, who call for more debate around the bill and warn of the risk of legal uncertainty and, worse, room for censorship."
The controversy has reached America with names like Glenn Greenwald and Elon Musk sharply criticizing the bill.
