Sophia Yan, Senior Foreign Correspondent
With his steely, dark gaze and a shiny bald head, it is easy to see why Alexandre de Moraes was likened to Voldemort.
The unflattering comparison to the Harry Potter character came from Elon Musk, who is now locked in a battle to keep his social media platform X alive in one of the world’s largest democracies.
On Friday night, Mr de Moraes, a supreme court justice, banned the app after a long row with the world’s richest man over disinformation.
It is the latest power move from one of the most polarising figures in Brazil – a man accused of riding roughshod over the rules, with one eye on the presidential palace.
For years, Mr de Moraes, 55, has fashioned himself as a defender of democracy and a warrior against political disinformation, earning him the nickname Xandão, or “Big Alex”.
“Those who violate democracy, who violate fundamental human rights, whether in person or through social media, must be held accountable,” Mr de Moraes said on Friday, without mentioning X by name.
Mr de Moraes shot to public recognition in 2019 for leading an investigation into “fake news” generated while the hard-Right former president Jair Bolsonaro was in power.
That investigation is still ongoing, and drew support for Mr de Moraes as a crusader against anything deemed a risk to Brazil’s democratic institutions.
But he has pushed so much that some wonder if he’s going too far – exceeding his authority to the point of endangering Brazil’s young democracy, rather than upholding its values.
Critics have pointed out that he has previously ordered raids with scant evidence and jailed people without trial for social media posts that he said threatened the country’s institutions.
“He is a defender of democracy, but has overstepped his role as a judge at times when dealing with social media,” Andres Cesar, a political analyst at consulting firm Hold Assessoria Legislativa, told Reuters. “He thinks public opinion is on his side, but I don’t know for how long.”
Mr de Moraes has plenty more miles to run before he hits the mandatory retirement age of 75 for judges, and has high political ambitions, including becoming president, a source close to him told AFP.
He is in part emboldened by the sweeping powers granted to Brazil’s supreme court, which it granted itself in 2019, allowing it to open its own investigations.
That effectively gave the country’s top court the authority to be involved throughout the entire law enforcement and judicial process: to investigate, prosecute, and adjudicate.
Earlier this month, X shut its office in Brazil because of what it called “censorship orders” from Mr de Moraes – a move that it said was “to protect the safety of our staff”.
This week, Mr de Moraes also blocked the local bank accounts of Mr Musk’s Starlink internet satellite company, saying that those funds could be repurposed to cover court-ordered fines linked to X.
The move to block X highlights a larger, global discussion on how to police disinformation without damaging free speech.
A few months ago, Mr Musk, who also owns the electric vehicle maker Tesla and the rocket company SpaceX, had heated exchanges with Anthony Albanese, the Australian prime minister, over a court order to take down posts that showed a knife attack at a church in April.
Such complicated debates over free speech and the internet have been ongoing for years, including discussions at the highest levels of government and at the United Nations, on how to handle posts with terrorist propaganda or violent content.
On Saturday, X was going dark across Brazil, a country of 215 million people, after the nation’s telecom agency, Anatel, took to the social media platform itself to confirm that it would begin implementing the court-ordered ban.
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