Brazil is showing a Harris administration how to de-platform Twitter/X

What happened in Brazil this past week — a magistrate suspended Twitter and threatened telecommunication companies, as well as Apple and Google — did not happen in a vacuum. To briefly sum up the order handed down: Brazilian Supreme Court justice Alexandre de Moraes ordered that Elon Musk’s X (formerly Twitter) be completely de-platformed, citing government speech rules against hate and “disinformation.” Any Brazilian citizen caught using a VPN to skirt the legal order could face fines that equal about $9,000.

Moraes has also attempted to freeze Starlink accounts in the country, Musk’s satellite and internet service. What is happening in Brazil is a blueprint for a Kamala Harris Department of Justice to target X and Musk here in the United States. How do we know this? Because Harris herself has spoken almost identically about the need to regulate what she considers “hate speech” and “disinformation” on private social media platforms. Plus, the idea of targeting telecommunication companies and Apple and Google app stores has been a policy floated in the past by Democrats and their friends in the media.

In 2021, Oliver Darcy, then of CNN, wrote, “TV providers should not escape scrutiny for distributing disinformation.” Tim Walz, Kamala Harris’s pick for vice president, told MSNBC that “hate speech” and “disinformation” are not legally protected speech. Walz, in an appearance with MSNBC’s Joy Reid, said, “I think we need to push back on this. There’s no guarantee to free speech on misinformation or hate speech, and especially around our democracy.”

In 2019, as part of her far-left campaign push, Kamala Harris told CNN’s Jake Tapper that Twitter should take action to ban Donald Trump, which they eventually did. In a speech to the NAACP in 2019, Harris told a crowd that she would direct her DoJ and law enforcement to “counter this extremism. We will hold social media platforms accountable for the hate infiltrating their platforms. Because they have a responsibility to help fight against this threat to our democracy.” She continued, “If you act as a megaphone for disinformation or cyber warfare, if you don’t police your platform, we are going to hold you accountable as a community.”

Such action, of course, would be wildly unconstitutional — and it’s not the only time Harris has threatened social media companies over her own empowered definition of hate speech and disinformation. Nothing suggests Harris has backed off this stance.

You can bet that the Harris campaign is studying how the executive order in Brazil is playing out, because it is a blueprint for a Harris DoJ to pursue action against X and Elon Musk in America. Harris and Walz have signaled every intent to pursue similar actions against telecommunication companies they deem a dangerous threat to democracy. The language that Justice Alexandre de Moraes used in his orders against Musk are almost identical to the language used by Harris and Walz, and until she offers a clear explanation that this is no longer her position, we should take the threat of a Harris administration and DoJ seriously when it comes to preserving free speech online.