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It looks like technopreneur tycoon Elon Musk cannot keep himself out of trouble for too long. After his legal tangles at home in the United States, he is quite deep in trouble in Brazil, where his social media platform X, with a huge following, is blocked by Supreme Court judge Alexandre de Moraes. Justice Moraes demanded that X appoint a legal representative in Brazil. Musk withdrew his team from the country when he faced fines for allowing inaccurate posts on X. Now, Musk is an absolute libertarian; that is, he believes that there should be no restrictions of any kind on free speech. When the regulators in Brazil began to block X across the country on Friday and Saturday, Musk hit back saying that Brazilians were being deprived of truth. Some of the Brazilians included Justice Moraes and President Luis Inacio Lula de Silva.

The president said, “Just because a guy has a lot of money does not mean he can disrespect” law. Moraes was firm in his stand. He said, “Those who violate democracy, who violate fundamental human rights, whether in person or through social media, must be held accountable.” Musk called Moraes a “dictator” and President de Silva the “lapdog” of a “dictator”.

Stripped of the heated exchanges, the Musk stand is not unreasonable as far as it goes, but on the other posts on social media, in this case X, can trigger violence as they did in the recent outbreak of far-right riots in Britain. So reasonable limits of freedom of speech are accepted as necessary by all those who believe fully in democracy. Musk seems to think that when the state’s institutions, including the judiciary, intervene for the right reasons, it is an example of state intervention and that it is a violation of freedom of speech. But Moraes has rightly argued that freedom of speech cannot violate the democratic rights of others. This would unleash an unending battle of words and worldviews.

There is also the deep suspicion that Musk is not playing the pure democrat as he claims to be, and that he is indirectly serving American interests in the political and strategic spheres. It can be said that this remains to be proven. A fair demand indeed, but one can see through the harmful effects of false posts on social media that it is not an honest game. There is need for fair restrictions on freedom of speech. Propaganda that is vicious and diabolical loses its legitimacy.

In many ways, Musk is challenging the status quo. He is very much the future man and he is quite right in believing that the old institutions and old rules may not work, and there is need to change them. If Musk had his way, he would make the new laws all on his own in the manner of a Napoleon. But the international landscape is cluttered with states, big and small, and with laws and rules governing within them and between them.

What is very clear is that hate speech, propagandas with an intent to unleash violence is not acceptable, and there have to be restrictive rules to maintain public order and public peace. There has to be a general atmosphere of amity for individuals to exercise their rights. Musk believes that he is a genius and that rules applicable to others cannot be imposed on him. The exceptionalism that Musk seeks, much like his country of adoption, the United States, is not acceptable. And that is pretty much the message that Supreme Court Justice Moraes has sent out through his ruling. The good things, and the bad things too, that Musk does, wittingly or unwittingly, carry the weight of the United States behind him.