Originally published at: Brazilian court orders block on Twitter after it refuses to appoint a legal agent there - Boing Boing
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Is it, though? Or is it regulating social media companies, the way everyone should because they keep promoting fascism and even genocide otherwise? If the US insisted X pay its fines, comply with court orders, and have a legal representative, would anyone even consider calling it state censorship other than right-wing babies like Elon?
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“innoculous terms”? is that a term that refers to vaccines or some other such thing that skunk downplays as invasive of [his brand of] freeze peach?
i am imagining a Transformer character that becomes a giant robot hero from a syringe. Innoculous Prime
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Yes it is. Not because they are trying to regulate twitter, but because they are threatening the public for accessing it anyway.
Therein lies the authoritarian douchebaggery.
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What is to stop X/Twitter from appointing a legal agent, that happens to have diplomatic immunity?
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Isn’t having legal council or an agent by a foreign corporations just… standard operating procedure for operating as a transnational corporation? Can Twitter not afford that somehow? And why do US-based corporations get to be above the law in other countries?
I also suspect that many people reading this have some awareness of how private corporations have often been employed as a cover for US imperialist aim in the global south, especially in Latin America…
Once again, why is it okay for a corporation that is US based to circumvent the law?
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Once again, why is it okay for a corporation that is US based to circumvent the law?
I wasn’t thinking circumvention, just “malicious compliance.”
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It’s quite mild compared to what the EU asks of for social media sites and yet twitter is still on over there. Elon just wants to act like a knob
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Once again, why is it okay to try and circumvent local laws, even if only by malicious compliance? What makes a corporation so special and important that it can operate outside the law… This seems like a trivially easy problem for twitter to fix. Put someone into the position. We expect private corporations from other countries to abide by our laws, why are US corporations any different? this is some real American exceptionalism BS, especially since Musk is ACTIVELY trying to overthrow democracy here right now as we speak…
Plus, it’s crystal clear that Musk is actively seeking to impose his ideas about government and what it should be on as many places as possible, including in Brazil and here in the US. Twitter played a major role in the attempted coup by Bolsanaro, so this isn’t some innocent corporation that did nothing harmful in Brazil.
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The judge could “order” the appointed representative to cure the ills, failing that, X/Twitter could still be sanctioned with fines/suspension/revocation of its Brazilian charter until the ills are corrected.
The only difference is that the appointed representative wouldn’t face these sanctions themselves. Think of it like how (US) police officers have “qualified immunity” but the municipalities they represent don’t when the officers behavior goes completely off the rails.
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You’re asking for a lawyer qualified to practise in Brazil who is also a diplomat representing a foreign country. You’re also expecting their diplomatic immunity to cover their activities as legal representative of a private company.
If Xitter is selling ad space to Brazilian advertisers or selling blue ticks to Brazilian users, it is doing business in Brazil without having a legal representive in Brazil.
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You can certainly have both things be true at the same time. Brazil’s political situation hasn’t been great and has veered towards authorianism, but Xitter hasn’t been complying to international laws in regards to hate speech and other things. Asking them to have someone in Brazil to answer for how they are operating in the country seems to be the bare minimum, no? Unless you’re implying that US companies are above international law.
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Why should twitter be above the law… Why should corporations have more rights than the people of brazil. We all are perfectly aware that twitter is being used to destabilize governments. Including ours… why do they get a pass for that?
Exactly. State representatives having strong ties to private corporation has a long and very sorted history. We all know at least some of this history with regards to our southern neighbors.
Seems like some folks are indeed, doing that. It’s weird. Corporations have been incredibly destructive in modern history. We all know that. Of course governments can be, too, but that doesn’t excuse letting corporations stride the planet above the law…
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… well, foreign media would say that 
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God forbid that people use a service that isn’t Xitter. Let me get my pearls
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Why should twitter be above the law…
I am not saying that Twitter is above the law. I am saying that Brazil has every right to 86 Twitter out of the country, and direct Brazilian ISPs to filter their content.
Of course, periodic raids upon their office for details on Brazilian Twitter account holders should be enough to effectively neuter any of these account holders that attempt to use VPNs to mask their locations.
Think: What would China do to curb Twitter?
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Some incoming context… Here is the link:
And here are the screenshots:
And an article from the Guardian:
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That’s very much beside the point… it’s a stretch that this is some authoritarian powergrab… Check out the screengrabs I just posted about the background on this. Insuring against coups is hardly an authoritarian powergrab.
And of course, plenty of social media companies have found ways to operate in China and abide by their laws.
But I’ll ask again, why should corporations find ways to subvert or ignore local law? Why are corporations above the law, in anyway? If one of us visited Brazil, we’d be expected to abide by local law, whether or not we agree with it, or we’d risk arrest, yeah?
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