A Brazilian courtroom has introduced that it will likely be opening an investigation into X proprietor Elon Musk for obstruction of justice, after Musk reactivated far-right accounts that the Brazilian authorities had flagged for elimination. The announcement got here after Musk called for Brazilian Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes, who heads the nation’s Superior Electoral Court (TSE), to “resign or be impeached,” and a statement from X alleged that the orders to take away the accounts violate the Brazilian structure.

While the courtroom has not launched the checklist of accounts it requested for blocking or investigation, the São Paolo–primarily based newspaper Estadão reported that it consists of the fugitive far-right influencer Allan dos Santos, a supporter of president Jair Bolsonaro. (Dos Santos fled the country in 2020 to keep away from investigation for disseminating disinformation.) The checklist additionally consists of right-wing YouTuber Bruno Aiub, often known as Monark, who has over 1 million followers on X and has argued that Brazil ought to recognize the Nazi party, and Brazilian billionaire and Bolsonaro-supporter Luciano Hang.

Separately, after taking up the corporate, Musk reactivated the accounts of Brazilian far-right politicians Carla Zambelli, Gustavo Gayer, and Nikolas Ferreira. Ferreira, a Bolsonaro supporter, openly questioned the safety of Brazil’s digital voting machines, regardless that he received his native legislative race.

“All of these names have been problematic for years on social media,” says Flora Rebello Arduini, marketing campaign director on the nonprofit advocacy group Ekō. “They’ve been pushing for the far-right and election misinformation for ages.”

When Musk bought Twitter in 2022, later renaming it X, many activists in Brazil apprehensive that he would abuse the platform to push his personal agenda, Arduini says. “He has unprecedented broadcasting abilities. He is bullying a supreme court justice of a democratic country, and he is showing he will use all the resources he has available to push for whatever favors his personal opinions or his professional ambitions.”

Under Musk, X has develop into a haven for the far right and disinformation. After taking up, Musk provided amnesty to customers who had been banned from the platform, including right-wing influencer and convicted human trafficker Andrew Tate. A 2023 study discovered that hate speech has elevated on the platform underneath Musk’s management. The scenario in Brazil is simply the newest occasion of Musk aligning himself with and platforming harmful, far-right actions around the globe, specialists inform WIRED. “It’s not about Twitter or Brazil. It’s about a strategy from the global far right to overcome democracies and democratic institutions around the world,” says Nina Santos, a digital democracy researcher on the Brazilian National Institute of Science & Technology who researches the Brazilian far proper. “An opinion from an American billionaire should not count more than a democratic institution.”

This additionally comes as Brazil has continued working to know and examine the lead-up to January 8, 2023, when election-denying insurrectionists who refused to simply accept right-wing president Jair Bolsonaro’s defeat stormed Brazil’s legislature. The TSE, the nation’s election courtroom, is a particular judicial physique that investigates electoral crimes and is a part of the mechanism for overseeing the nation’s electoral processes total. The courtroom has been investigating the dissemination of pretend information and disinformation that forged doubt on the nation’s elections within the months and years main as much as the storming of the legislature on January 8, 2023. Both Arduini and Santos consider that the accounts Musk is refusing to take away are doubtless linked to the courtroom’s inquiry.