The State Department of the Government’s command has made new criticism of the Brazilian government and the performance of the minister, (Supreme Federal Court).
The agency stated that the government repressed “the democratic debate” and restricted the expression of former president’s supporters (), while the courts made decisions that undermine freedom of expression.
The document, which was sent to the US Congress, also says that the human rights situation “deteriorated” in 2024. The tone adopted in this year’s document contrasts with last year’s, which analyzed 2023.
In the previous report, aggressions to journalists and other human rights suppressions were attributed to Bolsonaro, which left power in 2022, contesting the election.
“The situation of human rights in Brazil worsened during the year. Courts took broad and disproportionate measures to undermine freedom of expression and internet freedom by blocking millions of users to information on an important social media platform in response to a case of harassment,” the state department says in the report produced by the Human Rights Office.
“The government has damaged democratic debate by restricting access to online content considered as ‘harmful to democracy’, disproportionately suppressing the expression of former President Jair Bolsonaro’s supporters, as well as elected journalists and politicians, often in secret processes that lacked due process guarantees,” the document says.
The agency criticizes the government for “not always” having taken steps to identify and punish employees who would have committed human rights abuses, without specifying who in this passage.
The report also mentions that the government would have suppressed “politically disadvantaged discourses based on the argument that they constituted ‘hate discourse’, a vague term detached from international human rights law.”
The position of the US government resonates statements earlier by US President Donald Trump and State Department Secretary Marco Rubio.
Based on this assessment, the US and applied financial sanctions
The reading that Bolsonaro and his supporters would be suffering persecution in the country also motivated, according to the Brazilian government.
What the US government considers “censorship” to US companies on social networks and its users permeated the document that deals with human rights.
“The government censured online content considered in violation of the Supreme Court (STF) orders, which instructed the platforms to remove content that allegedly disseminated disinformation related to the electoral system or judicial institutions, or that they depreciated judicial authorities with threats or online harassment,” the report says.
The STF’s performance in containing content on social networks was also the target of the report.
“Judicial records reveal that Minister Alexandre de Moraes personally ordered more than 100 user profiles on the social media platform X (previously Twitter), disproportionately suppressing the freedom of expression of former President Jair Bolsonaro, rather than adopting more specific measures to penalize content that incite impending illegal actions or harassment.”
