Brazil’s first lady mocks Elon Musk

Billionaire Elon Musk, owner of X (formerly Twitter), who had been in dispute with Brazil for several months over misinformation on his platform, saw this dispute reignited in an unusual way this weekend.

At an event on the heels of the G20 summit in Rio de Janeiro, Janja Lula da Silva, the wife of Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, took to the stage to directly attack Elon Musk, claiming he didn’t intimidate her, adding a swear word to underline his contempt.

Rosangela da Silva addressed Elon Musk directly as she spoke at a pre-G20 event dedicated to regulating social networks to combat misinformation.

This unexpected intervention revives a conflict that has been going on for several months between the billionaire and Brazil, after the latter was recently forced to temporarily suspend all X activities in the country, due to Musk’s refusal to comply with the Supreme Court’s decision to appoint a legal representative for his company in Brazil.

In an unexpected moment, as Rosangela da Silva was talking about how to regulate social networks, a ship’s noise was heard. The First Lady immediately reacted in jest, saying that it was Elon Musk who was making his presence felt, before adding bluntly: “**** ***, Elon Musk”, asserting that she wasn’t afraid of him!

For his part, Musk reacted on X by predicting that Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva would lose his next elections.

Let’s not forget that this conflict began when Brazil insisted that X and Elon Musk had to comply with local laws concerning online disinformation. Musk had refused to comply with Supreme Court orders to block accounts accused of spreading “false information” and hate messages.

Musk then expelled his legal representatives from Brazil, thereby depriving himself of the right to operate his companies under Brazilian law. After several attempts to get Musk to cooperate, the Supreme Court was forced to shut down X throughout the country, and the threat also extended to Musk’s Starlink satellite service, which refused to obey the court’s request to cut X off from its Internet services.

Finally, after several weeks, Musk changed his mind and began to comply with the Supreme Court’s decisions. As a result, Brazil authorized X to resume operations in the country last October.