The decision of the president of, to impose a 50% rate on Brazil was taken a few days ago, surprising even advisors from the area, and driven by the recent
According to three people with access to discussions of eventual sanctions to the minister, the Supreme’s performance in the case was seen as a kind of affront by increasing the accountability of social networks.
The Civil Marco, in force since 2014, established that social networks could only be held responsible for content posted by users if they breached a court order of removal. With the trial, going forward, companies will have more obligations, such as having to remove a list of content proactively.
On Monday (7), a member of the Trump government told the Sheet that the Supreme Court has made a series of bad decisions to silence freedom of expression and destabilize democracy in order to support “an unpopular government.”
Social networks were in Brazil one of the main instruments to boost discourse against the fairness of the electronic ballot boxes.
In the evaluation of Trump’s allies, the decision of widens what they see as censorship of freedom of expression while the US would seek a gesture precisely in the opposite direction. After the trial,
This added, according to people involved in the discussion, the contradiction for decisions issued against American companies, such as Rumble, and Trump’s assessment that Bolsonaro is persecuted, in a process similar to what he lived in the US-with the difference that the former president cannot apply in Brazil because he is ineligible.
Until last week, according to three people linked to the theme, the discussion about a response to what Trump and Bolsonarists advisers say they see as risk elements to Brazil’s democracy was only a financial punishment and prohibition of visa to Moraes. This has changed with some meetings to treat Brazil that have occurred in recent days.
Trump would have participated in at least one of them and chose to use the rates to press Brazil in the case. This, according to two people, was even before the BRICS summit in Rio de Janeiro, which served as another element to wear out Brazil’s relationship with the US.
The licensed federal deputy (-SP) and former presenter Paulo Figueiredo, who have led the US anti-moraes offensive, insisted on sanctions to the minister, but did not rule out the hypothesis of tariffs. This would be, said one involved in the debate, the last option in the plan drawn to press Moraes and which was eventually chosen by the US President. Sanctions to Moraes are still on the table, but without definition of when they would be implemented.
Members of the Trump government itself were taken by surprise with the announcement of 50%tariffs. USTR negotiators, the body that deals with foreign trade, talked to Brazilian representatives on Friday (4). According to Sheet It found, Americans worked on specific products and there was no recommendation from the agency to Trump to apply a 50% tariff to the country.
In these last week’s discussions, Big Techs and Bolsonaro allies made Trump the information about Marco Civil’s trial. They also evaluated that members of the Brazilian judiciary did not signal that they would come to agreement on the complaints of the pockets, so it was necessary to advance with the pressure.
The expectation of a gesture after the Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, had said in people around the president of the president, believe in any retreat by the Brazilian authorities, as much as they have repeatedly claimed that this will not occur and that any measure in this sense is prohibited by the Constitution.
A person linked to Trump resembles the case of Colombia, who released a landing with deported people after the American announced a 27.5% tariff against the country, as an example.
Rumble’s lawyer Martin de Luca said on Thursday (10) that recognizing the illegality of Moraes’ orders against the network, which supports Truth Social (Trump Network) content, would help review the course of tariffs. “When it comes to freedom of expression and technology companies, I think first it is necessary to recognize that the orders that Moraes should be terminated,” he said.
In practice, members of the Lula administration and Supreme Ministers say the chance that this happens is null.
In the political field, Trump did not make clear the ways for eventual negotiation that could avoid Brazil from being the target of 50% tariffs – in addition to the republican’s own change of idea, which has happened before.
He listed a series of complaints and attributed the implementation of tariffs “due in part to Brazil’s insidious attacks on free elections and the fundamental rights of freedom of expression of Americans.”
The letter sent also speaks of hundreds of secret decisions aiming at US media platforms, which he calls illegal. The president refers to requests for withdrawal of content and accounts on social networks and, without mentioning the name, deals with the case of Rumble, a video platform widely used by the right-wing audience. Trump mentions that STF decisions expel US companies from the Brazilian market.
Today, Rumble is blocked in Brazil and is subject to the payment of a fine determined by Moraes for not complying with orders.
In the letter in which he announced the tariffs, Trump wrote the standard stretch he has sent to other countries, saying that if Brazil is willing to open factories in the US, tariffs could be renegotiated. But it is unclear what the negotiation will look like.
