Report from The Hill
In Brief – Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva has announced that he backs the Brazilian Supreme Court’s (STF) decision to increase the liability of social media platforms in the country for content posted by their users, which has become a focal point of claims by populist critics of the government, backers of former president Jair Bolsonaro, and US President Donald Trump. Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes, who is at the center of the court’s actions, has been heavily criticized by conservative activists in the US and Brazil and recently had his US visa was revoked, as have other court justices. When President Trump announced his intention to impose a 50% tariff on Brazilian exports to the United States starting on August 1, he linked the action to what he called the “witch-hunt” trial against Bolsonaro, who is accused of trying to engineer a coup after losing the 2022 election. Lula describes US claims that Brazil runs a major trade surplus “inaccurate” and said that Brazil was prepared to respond with retaliatory measures under the country’s recently enacted Economic Reciprocity Law.
Context – Of all the Trump Administration’s bilateral tariff standoffs, the one with Brazil might have digital policy most centrally positioned. Even more than with the EU. USTR recently launched a Section 301 investigation into “unfair” trading practices by Brazil focusing on Brazilian treatment of digital services and electronic payments. The conflict with Justice Moraes runs deep. In February, President Trump’s own Trump Media & Technology Group, which runs Truth Social, and Rumble, a conservative online video site, sued Moraes in US federal court accusing him of illegally censoring political discourse in the US. Last year, Moraes was involved in a lengthy legal and rhetorical standoff with X and Elon Musk, which temporarily led to the platform being shut down in the country. Although that probably doesn’t matter as much to the bilateral relationship now. Finally, the Brazilian High Court recently paired back key provisions of the Marco Civil da Internet, Brazil’s groundbreaking Internet bill of rights enacted in 2014, which has been widely lauded for promoting free speech online.