Lula’s AGU is considering asking for the suspension or dissolution of X in Brazil

The chief minister of the Attorney General’s Office (AGU), Jorge Messias, indicated to minister Alexandre de Moraes that the body is considering asking the Court to suspend the activities of the social network X (formerly Twitter), or even the dissolution of the company in Brazil, if it is proven that it prejudiced investigations being processed at the Federal Supreme Court (STF) and the Superior Electoral Court (TSE).

This possibility was communicated in a confidential request that Messias made to Moraes, this Tuesday (23), for him to share with the AGU evidence collected in the investigation opened two weeks ago against the owner of X, Elon Musk, for alleged obstruction of justice. The 10-page petition was obtained exclusively by People’s Gazette.

In another petition, the Union’s attorney general presented Moraes with a factual report, which is a request to open a new investigation, to investigate the alleged leak of confidential information from the investigations conducted by the minister, which would have been published on the “Twitter Files ”, reports published in X and People’s Gazette which show how company executives were pressured to censor profiles on the platform.

Messias says that, in addition to the criminal liability of those involved in the leak (executives, mainly), the company that represents network public administration. In the AGU’s view, X Brasil Internet Ltda., headquartered in São Paulo, could be classified as a harmful act of “hindering the investigation or supervision of public bodies, entities or agents, or intervening in their activities”.

If the body considers that the company committed this illicit conduct, it would be subject, at the administrative level – that is, at the AGU itself – to a fine of 20% of its revenue. But Messias informed Moraes that more serious punishments would still be possible for the body.

He reproduced a statement from an internal department of the AGU – the Attorney General’s Office of the Union (PGU) – according to which the “judicial liability provided for by Law No. 12,846/2013, held by the Union and the Public Prosecutor’s Office, imposes, in addition to a fine , extremely serious consequences, such as the suspension or partial interdiction of its activities and even compulsory dissolution of the legal entity (art. 19).”

According to the Anti-Corruption Law, compulsory dissolution – in which the Court determines the extinction of the company in the country – occurs when it is proven that it was “habitually used to facilitate or promote the practice of illegal acts” or was established to hide or conceal illicit interests or the identity of the beneficiaries of the acts carried out”.

The PGU/AGU statement says that just as executives can be held responsible for the crime of embarrassing the investigation of a criminal offense involving a criminal organization (with a penalty of 3 to 8 years in prison), legal entities can also suffer punishment.

“The factual picture presented supposedly suggests an intervention or embarrassment in the investigation activity carried out in various procedures, some including within the scope of the Federal Supreme Court, which would, in theory, attract the incidence of art. 5th, V, of Law No. 12,846/2013”, says the statement.

AGU opened internal proceedings regarding leaked decisions in STF investigations

Within the AGU, Messias opened an internal investigation into the alleged leak, called the Prior Evidence Collection Procedure, which aims to collect elements to eventually apply punishments to the company X Brasil Ltda. – hence the request to Moraes to obtain evidence from the STF.

At the beginning of this month, when Musk began to denounce, on by profile blocking.

“This judge [Moraes] imposed heavy fines, threatened to arrest our employees and cut off access to X in Brazil”, the businessman posted. “As a result, we will likely lose all revenue in Brazil and will have to close our office there. But principles are more important than profit”, he added later.

Musk also announced that he would reactivate suspended profiles on the platform, which would imply non-compliance with a court decision. Among users of the network, fears arose that Moraes would be suspended from the social network, but the minister ended up opening a new investigation against the businessman, for the alleged crime of obstruction of justice, the same one mentioned by Messias.

When requesting the sharing of evidence, the Union’s attorney general stated that “a huge amount of information contained in judicial decisions, which had been attributed judicial secrecy, had been disclosed, compromising ongoing investigations both in the Supreme Court and in the Superior Electoral Court regarding undemocratic conduct that occurred in Brazil and which culminated in the acts of vandalism on January 8, 2023”.

“It is possible to infer that the facts narrated here have the potential to offend the legal sphere of the Union, considering that, in addition to violating the duty of secrecy regarding documents they had in custody, they cause unwanted interference and harm the regular progress of legal proceedings in progress before higher bodies of the Judiciary”, he wrote afterwards.

The disclosure of confidential information from the STF and TSE, he added, could favor company X Brasil. “If it is proven that the disclosure of this confidential information and its use are the responsibility of company unduly impact legal or administrative proceedings in favor of the company”, says the request sent to Moraes.

He cited the minister’s own decision to open the investigation against Musk, which is based on the idea that the businessman had allowed “intentional criminal exploitation” of the social network to encourage the dissemination of “fraudulent news” against institutions, by so-called “digital militias”, the name the minister gives to a group of politicians, commentators and digital influencers who, according to him, promote “attacks” on the STF and the TSE.

In the end, Messias asked Moraes to keep the request confidential. “Secrecy is granted to this petition, in accordance with article 189, items I and III, of the CPC, considering the nature of the claim presented here and the content of the attached documents. Finally, the applicant undertakes to maintain the confidentiality of the information requested, and will promote its addition to the destination files, using the necessary means and instruments to prevent access to the data by third parties”, Jorge Messias wrote in the petition.

Messiah used X to criticize Musk and call for regulation of social media

Since Musk began criticizing Moraes for censoring Brazilian users on the X network at the beginning of the month, Jorge Messias began to criticize the businessman, including on the platform, and defend stricter regulation of social networks, an issue of interest to the government and STF ministers.

“It is urgent to regulate social networks. We cannot live in a society in which billionaires domiciled abroad have control of social networks and put themselves in a position to violate the rule of law, failing to comply with court orders and threatening our authorities. Social Peace is non-negotiable”, the Union’s attorney general posted on the platform on April 7th.

On the 19th, Messias expressed “unconditional support for the Supreme Court and all its members” during a G20 event in Rio de Janeiro. “In Brazil, we have good examples of platforms that are, at the moment, engaged with Brazilian authorities, building a model, a secure data processing protocol, in which Brazilian society is not at the mercy of so-called digital piracy”, he stated in a speech .

“Unfortunately, we have many others who prefer to ignore Brazilian legislation and often undermine our democracy. For these platforms, we also have a message: the law will be strictly applied,” he said, in an indirect way to Musk.

Jorge Messias is one of the main interlocutors of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT) at the Federal Supreme Court (STF) and usually participates in the PT member’s meetings with the Court’s ministers.

Before being chosen by Lula to defend the government in the Judiciary, he became known as “Bessias”, in the Lava Jato clip in which former president Dilma Rousseff, in 2016, told Lula that he, then an advisor to the Presidency, could take to the PT member a term of office in the Civil House – the appointment was suspended by the STF due to misuse of purpose, as at the time Minister Gilmar Mendes understood that the objective was to give Lula privileged forum so that he would not be investigated in the first instance of Justice in the Car wash.

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