Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro and President Donald Trump during a visit to the White House, in 2019. (Photo by: Alan Santos/Planalto Office)
Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro has celebrated the sale of Twitter to Tesla CEO Elon Musk. About an hour after the confirmation of the change of command of the social network, Bolsonaro retweeted a message from Musk in which he defends freedom of speech on Twitter.
In another message, Bolsonaro shared an article from a website explaining how to deactivate a Twitter account. “Good article,” Bolsonaro said.
Brazil’s Minister of Communications, Fábio Faria, was also congratulated on Musk’s acquisition.
“Congratulations, @elonmusk! Once again you are two steps ahead of the other players and now you are gesturing to the world and in defense of freedom!”, Faria said.
Jair Bolsonaro has already been a victim of censorship on Twitter. In March 2020, the network deleted two posts by the Brazilian President in which he criticized the quarantine and argued that people should work, because isolation would cause economic crisis and leave poor families in a bad situation.
In another post, which was also deleted by Twitter, Bolsonaro appeared to be meeting with supporters criticizing the quarantine and advocating the use of hydroxychloroquine against the Chinese virus. Twitter said that Bolsonaro’s message “violated Twitter rules.”