The Federal Supreme Court (STF) scheduled for May 20th the trial of two actions that discuss whether former president Jair Bolsonaro (PL) could block citizens from his official social networks while he still occupied the position of President of the Republic. The cases are reported by minister Cármen Lúcia and minister André Mendonça.
One of the injunctions analyzes whether Bolsonaro could block a citizen from his Twitter account (now, X) without violating fundamental rights. The case was presented to the STF by journalist William de Luca Martinez in 2020, who asked the Court to unblock his profile, claiming that the measure represented censorship and abuse of power.
The journalist stated that “popular participation does not end with the exercise of suffrage, but rather with the daily practice of following the steps the government is taking, monitoring it, criticizing it or suggesting what measures should be taken”.
“Which is only possible in the full exercise of the rights to access to information, to freedom of expression of thought, to freedom of expression of communication, to be informed and informed, through journalistic activity”, he said.
The former president’s defense justified, at the time, that Bolsonaro, like any other citizen, would have the guaranteed right “to have a private account on the social network that suits him, as well as to express his opinion, share posts, among others, deciding about his contacts and followers”.
The second case was presented by lawyer Leonardo Medeiros Magalhães, also in 2020. He requested in the action the unblocking of his Instagram account and the recognition of his right to interact with the profile of Bolsonaro, who was the President of the Republic.
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The lawyer maintained that the blockade is a “constitutional affront to the most important fundamental right of citizens, the free expression of thought”. For Leonardo, the Court should judge “all the terms of this mandatory action are valid, under penalty of experiencing a virtual dictatorship, which would be very costly for our newly born democratic State”.
Bolsonaro, in his defense, replicated the argument that his Instagram account is private in nature, and that, like any citizen, he has the right to decide who can follow him or interact with his publications.
“The petitioner’s request violates the principle of legality, with the petitioner not being obliged to do what the petitioner requests, given the absence of legal regulations that oblige any citizen to have contact on a social network with anyone they do not want to,” said the former president’s defense.
