Censored
Disclaimer: Your capital is at risk. This is not investment advice.
ByteFolio Issue 123;
The X social network has been switched off in Brazil as Musk has allegedly refused to follow local Brazilian laws. It has been blocked by the supreme court judge, Alexandre de Moraes, who sees the X platform as spreading “far right” propaganda. By that, he meant friends of Brazil’s former president, Bolsonaro.
Moraes is banning VPNs, making it harder for determined X users to stay connected, with huge $8,000 daily fines if they do. Musk fought back, saying, “He violated the constitution of Brazil repeatedly and egregiously, after swearing an oath to protect it. Nothing worse than an oathbreaker.” He then showed Moraes in a meme, funny but rude, which you can see here.
Crypto was always the financial equivalent of free speech, with the idea that you could transact freely. That is different from anonymously, as the creators of the Silk Road discovered over ten years ago. But while your bank can stop you from transacting, crypto won’t. The user is in control, and whether your actions were legal or not is a separate matter.
The unintended consequences of banning VPNs will soon come to light, and this situation will escalate. If Brazil successfully bans X, then more countries will follow, not just with X, but with more internet censorship in general. It would be a great step backwards for globalisation. This environment would unquestionably be negative for crypto, as for it to thrive, the internet needs to remain free. I hope there is pushback from the Brazilian people and the Brazilian legal system.
I suspect this story and the recent weakness in social media stocks haven’t helped crypto. It has been too long since the last rally, and the tide has been going out. Investors are getting impatient. But as I have kept saying, the good things have always happened in Q4.
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