00:00And for eight years, the Brazilian and international far-right have worked together to criminalize Brazil's judiciary.
00:06This year, the legitimacy of the Supreme Court has turned into a campaign issue.
00:10My correspondent, Ramir, has more.
00:14For years, the Bolsonaro family has worked to build a false narrative of an authoritarian judiciary
00:20to delegitimize corruption and election fraud investigations.
00:24This narrative has been bolstered by the Silicon Valley tech giants
00:27as part of an international campaign to weaponize censorship charges
00:31to attack governments that attempt to regulate cryptocurrency and social media.
00:36It's now a key issue in this year's presidential elections.
00:39We have to regulate. We have to protect our children and adolescents.
00:44We can't allow them to see videos inside in three sides.
00:47We can't allow videos inside in violence.
00:49But when we talk about regulation, the United States claims it is censorship.
00:53It is not censorship. It is protection.
00:55In 2024, X pushed back against Brazil's justice ministry
00:59when asked to de-platform accounts inciting teenagers to commit school massacres on Hitler's birthday.
01:05Then, a US PR specialist named Michael Schellenberger was exposed,
01:09cutting and pasting unrelated emails together to falsely accuse Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes of censorship.
01:16He apologized and fled the country, but later addressed a US congressional commission
01:20alleging free speech was under attack in Brazil.
01:23Brazil has been a liberal democracy for over 30 years.
01:27During that period, there have been free and fair elections.
01:30People have been free to express their views.
01:32Today, Brazil is no longer a liberal democracy.
01:35It is an illiberal one.
01:37After unverified charges against Alexandre de Moraes were made by another Supreme Court minister,
01:43Andrei Mendoza, last week, Flavio Bolsonaro jumped five points in the polls
01:47and is now tied with President Lula.
01:49There is no doubt that the Brazilian far right, in conjunction with those in the United States,
01:55have been weaponizing this idea that the Brazilian Supreme Court is authoritarian
02:00or is somehow taking authoritarian measures.
02:03And this goes back to the fact that Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes
02:07was one of the major people to stand up to Bolsonaro when Bolsonaro was in power,
02:11was the head of a fake news investigation,
02:15in which he helped to roll back fake news in the country,
02:18and also got into a major battle with Elon Musk over X.
02:23Brazil's first-round presidential election will take place on October 4th.
02:26Brian Mir, tell us, sir, receive.
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