Trump Administration Targets Brazilian Judge for ‘Censorship'

New York Times

29-05-2025

Alexandre de Moraes, a Brazilian Supreme Court justice, is a political Rorschach test of sorts.
Over the past several years, he has undertaken an aggressive campaign to rid the Brazilian internet of what he says are threats against Brazil's democratic institutions, ordering the removal of hundreds of social media accounts in the process, nearly all of them right-wing.
As a result, the left in Brazil considers him a savior of the nation's democracy, helping to protect it against an attempted coup in 2022.
To the right, he is a dangerous government censor who has abused his power to silence conservative voices online.
Elon Musk has challenged him, President Trump's media company has sued him, and the former Brazilian president, Jair Bolsonaro, is accused of plotting to assassinate him.
Now, for the first time, he appears to be in the cross hairs of the U.S. government — a development that could cause a diplomatic rift between the Western Hemisphere's two largest nations.
On Wednesday, Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced that the United States would restrict visas from foreign officials who are 'responsible for censorship of protected expression in the United States.' In an online post, Mr. Rubio noted Latin America as an example of a region where he believed such censorship has been a problem.
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