Elon Musk compares Brazil's Chief Justice to Voldemort amid bitter X feud

4 weeks ago

Elon Musk compared Brazil's Chief Justice Alexandre de Moraes to Harry Potter villain Voldemort in a viral tweet. The post comes as Musk faces escalating tensions with Moraes, including threats to shut down X's operations in Brazil.

The tension between Elon Musk and Brazil's Chief Justice Alexandre de Moraes continues to escalate. (X/@elonmusk)

India Today World Desk

New Delhi,UPDATED: Aug 18, 2024 15:13 IST

Elon Musk, the billionaire CEO of SpaceX and Tesla, has escalated his feud with Brazil's Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes by comparing the judge to Harry Potter villain Lord Voldemort. The provocative move comes as Musk's social media platform, X (formerly Twitter), decided to close operations in Brazil owing to a bitter legal tussle.

In a tweet that quickly went viral, Musk shared side-by-side images of Judge Moraes and Voldemort, with the caption "The resemblance is uncanny. Alexandre de Voldemort."

The image shows Moraes in a black cloak similar to Voldemort's, holding a wand.

The tweet comes amid a heated conflict between Musk and Moraes. On Saturday, Musk announced that X might shut down its operations in Brazil after the platform claimed that Chief Justice Moraes threatened to arrest one of its legal representatives.

Ironically, Musk himself has been likened to Voldemort – who is also known as He Who Must Not Be Named. Following his takeover of Twitter (before its X rebranding, employees reportedly avoided mentioning him in emails or messages, fearing retribution. Instead, they referred to him as "the guy at the top" or "new ownership" in internal communications.

MUSK VS MORAES

According to Forbes, the dispute began in April when X's global government affairs page announced it was forced to block certain popular accounts in Brazil without knowing the reason behind the block orders or what posts violated Brazilian law.

Moraes had ordered the blocks as part of an investigation into "digital militias" accused of spreading disinformation and divisive messaging.

Musk reacted strongly, calling the legal orders "the most draconian demands of any country" and demanding Moraes' resignation. He claimed Moraes applied massive fines and threatened to cut off Brazilians' access to X, which could result in the platform losing all revenue in the country and forcing it to shut down its Brazil office.

More recently, X's government affairs page stated that it was threatened by Moraes with the arrest of one of its lawyers and a daily fine of 20,000 reais ($3,653 US dollars) if it did not comply with the blocking orders.

Musk had vowed to reactivate the blocked accounts, leading Moraes to include him in an investigation for obstruction of justice and incitement to crime.

Published By:

Devika Bhattacharya

Published On:

Aug 18, 2024

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