close
close

Elon Musk compares Brazil’s top judge to Harry Potter villain Voldemort

Elon Musk compares Brazil’s top judge to Harry Potter villain Voldemort
Posted on | Posted on Theodore

Elon Musk compares Brazil's top judge to Harry Potter villain Voldemort

In the picture, Judge Moraes is seen wearing a black cloak similar to Voldemort’s.

Billionaire Elon Musk has compared Brazil’s Chief Justice Alexandre de Moraes to infamous Harry Potter villain Lord Voldemort. The SpaceX CEO made the comparison in a tweet that has since gone viral, showing side-by-side images of Judge Moraes and Voldemort.

Judge Moraes wears a black cloak similar to that of Voldemort, who is brandishing a wand in the other image. “The resemblance is uncanny. Alexandre de Voldemort,” the Tesla CEO wrote in the caption on X.

One X-user fuelled the controversy even further by creating a video that transformed Brazil’s chief justice into Voldemort. The edited clip showed Mr Moraes rising into the air, wrapped in a black cloak, before transforming into the Harry Potter villain with a wand in hand.

Others made fun of Mr. Moraes, commenting on it with comments such as “I feel sorry for Voldemort” and “Voldemort was nicer.”

This settlement follows a major development related to X’s operations in Brazil. On Saturday, the social media giant announced it would cease operations in the country, citing an ongoing legal dispute with Brazil’s chief justice as the main reason. The closure was described as “effective immediately,” although Brazilian users will continue to have access to the platform.

“We are deeply saddened to have been forced to make this decision,” said an official statement from X, which clearly placed the blame on Moraes. The company claimed the decision was a direct result of the actions of the Brazilian Supreme Court judge.

The legal battle between X and Judge Moraes has been simmering for some time. Earlier this year, the judge ordered X to block certain accounts accused of spreading misinformation and hate speech, particularly those linked to supporters of former far-right President Jair Bolsonaro. Bolsonaro had repeatedly raised doubts about the integrity of Brazil’s electronic voting system, claiming it was vulnerable to fraud – a claim that fueled tensions ahead of the hotly contested 2022 elections.
Alexandre de Moraes, who also heads Brazil’s Supreme Electoral Court, is a vocal advocate of combating disinformation. “Freedom of expression does not mean freedom to aggress,” Mr Moraes has said in the past, according to an Al Jazeera report. “It does not mean freedom to defend tyranny.”

In the latest escalation, X claimed that Mr. Moraes secretly threatened one of its legal representatives in Brazil with arrest if he did not comply with legal orders to remove certain content. “For this reason, to protect our employees, we have made the decision to close our operations in Brazil,” the statement said.
Elon Musk, never one to shy away from controversy, doubled down on his criticism of Mr Moraes, calling him “a complete disgrace to the judiciary” in a separate post on X.

Earlier this year, Judge Moraes also launched an investigation into Elon Musk and X after the owner of X announced plans to reactivate accounts on the platform that Moraes had previously ordered blocked.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *