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Elon Musk says X will disobey Brazil court order to censor accounts, calls on judge to be impeached

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Elon Musk,  Frederic Legrand – COMEO/Shutterstock

From LifeSiteNews

By Andreas Wailzer

Elon Musk stated that his social media platform will likely be forced to shut down operations in Brazil as a result of non-compliance with the court order, but argued that ‘principles matter more than profit.’

Elon Musk has pushed back on demands made in a Brazilian court order to censor certain accounts and called for the impeachment of a leading Supreme Court judge.

On Saturday, April 6, X (formerly known as Twitter) announced that it “has been forced by court decisions to block certain popular accounts in Brazil” under the threat of daily fines if the company fails to comply.

Shortly after the announcement, X owner Elon Musk said that the company would resist these demands, even if it had to shut down its operations in Brazil.

“We are lifting all restrictions,” the billionaire wrote. “This judge has applied massive fines, threatened to arrest our employees, and cut off access to 𝕏 in Brazil.”

“As a result, we will probably lose all revenue in Brazil and have to shut down our office there. But principles matter more than profit.”

In another post on X, Musk announced that his social media platform would publish the demands made by Supreme Court judge and head of Brazil’s Superior Electoral Court Alexandre de Moraes. Musk also called for de Moraes to be impeached and referred to him as “Brazil’s Darth Vader.”

“Coming shortly, 𝕏 will publish everything demanded by @Alexandre [de Moraes] and how those requests violate Brazilian law. This judge has brazenly and repeatedly betrayed the constitution and people of Brazil. He should resign or be impeached. Shame @Alexandre, shame.”

A few days prior, journalist Michael Shellenberger published the “Twitter Files Brazil,” which showed how the Deep State, led by de Moraes, had interfered in the 2022 presidential election by pressuring social media platforms to ban accounts that supported sitting president Jair Bolsonaro or questioned the electoral systems.

READ: New ‘Twitter Files’ show how Brazil’s deep state interfered in the 2022 presidential election

On March 30, 2022, the day after de Moraes took office as president of the TSE, the TSE mandated Twitter to, within a week and under the threat of a daily fine of 50,000 BRL (US$ 10,000), supply data on the monthly trend statistics for the hashtags #VotoImpressoNAO (“PrinteVoteNo”) and #VotoDemocraticoAuditavel (“DemocraticAuditableVote”).

In 2022, the court coerced Twitter into censoring several accounts, including two elected House members, for allegedly spreading “disinformation” under the threat of heavy fines. Twitter initially pushed back on these requests and appealed the orders but ended up complying with some of the requests due to the pressure of the heavy penalties.

Under Musk’s leadership, the social media platform appears to reject the censorship demands made by de Moraes and risk the shutdown of the company in Brazil.

“At any moment, Brazil’s Supreme Court could shut off all access to X/Twitter for the people of Brazil,” Shellenberger wrote on April 7 while reporting from Brazil. “It is not an exaggeration to say that Brazil is on the brink of dictatorship at the hands of a totalitarian Supreme Court Justice named Alexandre de Moraes.”

“President Lula da Silva is participating in the push toward totalitarianism,” he added. “Since taking office, Lula has massively increased government funding of the mainstream news media, most of which are encouraging increased censorship.”

In response to Musk’s announcement to disobey the court order, Brazil’s Attorney General Jorge Messias demanded “urgent regulations” of social media platforms. According to the Financial Times, Messias said, “It is urgent to regulate social networks.”

“We cannot live in a society in which billionaires domiciled abroad have control of social networks and put themselves in a position to violate the rule of law, failing to comply with court orders and threatening our authorities,” he added.

Musk called on users in Brazil to download and use a VPN (virtual private network) to be able to use the social media platform, should the government restrict access to X.

Automotive

Auto giant shuts down foreign plants as Trump moves to protect U.S. industry

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MXM logo  MxM News

Quick Hit:

Stellantis is pausing vehicle production at two North American facilities—one in Canada and another in Mexico—following President Donald Trump’s announcement of 25% tariffs on foreign-made cars. The move marks one of the first corporate responses to the administration’s push to bring back American manufacturing.

Key Details:

  • In an email to workers Thursday, Stellantis North America chief Antonio Filosa directly tied the production pause to the new tariffs, writing that the company is “continuing to assess the medium- and long-term effects” but is “temporarily pausing production” at select assembly plants outside the U.S.

  • Production at the Windsor Assembly Plant in Ontario will be paused for two weeks, while the Toluca Assembly Plant in Mexico will be offline for the entire month of April.

  • These plants produce the Chrysler Pacifica minivan, the new Dodge Charger Daytona EV, the Jeep Compass SUV, and the Jeep Wagoneer S EV.

Diving Deeper:

On Wednesday afternoon in the White House Rose Garden, President Trump announced sweeping new tariffs aimed at revitalizing America’s auto manufacturing industry. The 25% tariffs on all imported cars are part of a broader “reciprocal tariffs” strategy, which Trump described as ending decades of globalist trade policies that hollowed out U.S. industry.

Just a day later, Stellantis became the first major automaker to act on the new policy, halting production at two of its international plants. According to an internal email obtained by CNBC, Stellantis North American COO Antonio Filosa said the company is “taking immediate actions” to respond to the tariff policy while continuing to evaluate the broader impact.

“These actions will impact some employees at several of our U.S. powertrain and stamping facilities that support those operations,” Filosa wrote.

The Windsor, Ontario plant, which builds the Chrysler Pacifica and the newly introduced Dodge Charger Daytona EV, will shut down for two weeks. The Toluca facility in Mexico, responsible for the Jeep Compass and Jeep Wagoneer S EV, will suspend operations for the entire month of April.

The move comes as Stellantis continues to face scrutiny for its reliance on low-wage labor in foreign markets. As reported by Breitbart News, the company has spent years shifting production and engineering jobs to countries like Brazil, India, Morocco, and Mexico—often at the expense of American workers. Last year alone, Stellantis cut around 400 U.S.-based engineering positions while ramping up operations overseas.

Meanwhile, General Motors appears to be responding differently. According to Reuters, GM told employees in a webcast Thursday that it will increase production of light-duty trucks at its Fort Wayne, Indiana plant—where it builds the Chevrolet Silverado and GMC Sierra. These models are also assembled in Mexico and Canada, but GM’s decision suggests a shift in production to the U.S. could be underway in light of the tariffs.

As Trump’s trade reset takes effect, more automakers are expected to recalibrate their production strategies—potentially signaling a long-awaited shift away from offshoring and toward rebuilding American industry.

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Business

‘Time To Make The Patient Better’: JD Vance Says ‘Big Transition’ Coming To American Economic Policy

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JD Vance on “Rob Schmitt Tonight” discussing tariff results

 

From the Daily Caller News Foundation

By Hailey Gomez

Vice President JD Vance said Thursday on Newsmax that he believes Americans will “reap the benefits” of the economy as the Trump administration makes a “big transition” on tariffs.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 1,679.39 points on Thursday, just a day after President Donald Trump announced reciprocal tariffs against nations charging imports from the U.S. On “Rob Schmitt Tonight,” Schmitt asked Vance about the stock market hit, asking how the White House felt about the “Liberation Day” move.

“We’re feeling good. Look, I frankly thought in some ways it could be worse in the markets, because this is a big transition. You saw what the President said earlier today. It’s like a patient who was very sick,” Vance said. “We did the operation, and now it’s time to make the patient better. That’s exactly what we’re doing. We have to remember that for 40 years, we’ve been doing this for 40 years.”

“American economic policy has rewarded people who ship jobs overseas. It’s taxed our workers. It’s made our supply chains more brittle, and it’s made our country less prosperous, less free and less secure,” Vance added.

Vance recalled that one of his children had been sick and needed antibiotics that were not made in the United States. The Vice President called it a “ridiculous thing” that some medicines invented in the country are no longer manufactured domestically.

“That’s fundamentally what this is about. The national security of manufacturing and making the things that we need, from steel to pharmaceuticals, antibiotics, and so forth, but also the good jobs that come along when you have economic policies that reward investing in America, rather than investing in foreign countries,” Vance said.

WATCH:

With a baseline 10% tariff placed on an estimated 60 countries, higher tariffs were applied to nations like China and Israel. For example, China, which has a 67% tariff on U.S. goods, will now face a 34% tariff from the U.S., while Israel, which has a 33% tariff, will face a 17% U.S. tariff.

“One bad day in the stock market, compared to what President Trump said earlier today, and I think he’s right about this. We’re going to have a booming stock market for a long time because we’re reinvesting in the United States of America. More importantly than that, of course, the people in Wall Street have done well,” Vance said.

“We want them to do well. But we care the most about American workers and about American small businesses, and they’re the ones who are really going to benefit from these policies,” Vance said.

The number of factories in the U.S., Vance said, has declined, adding that “millions of workers” have lost their jobs.

“My town [Middletown, Ohio], where you had 10,000 great American steel workers, and my town was one of the lucky ones, now probably has 1,500 steel workers in that factory because you had economic policies that rewarded shipping our jobs to China instead of investing in American workers,” Vance said. “President Trump ran on changing it. He promised he would change it, and now he has. I think Americans are going to reap the benefits.”

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