Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva will not “tolerate” billionaire Elon Musk

The site formerly known as Twitter has been banned by one of the world’s largest democracies after accounts on the platform were accused of spreading hate speech and fake news.

Elon Musk, a self-proclaimed free speech absolutist, has since shut down his operations in Brazil and engaged in a war of words with the country’s top lawmakers and politicians.

In an interview published Monday, Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva said his country’s stance on Musk – the richest person on the planet, worth $239 billion according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index – should be an example to the rest of the world.

“The world does not have to support Musk’s far-right ideology just because he is rich,” Lula said in an interview with CNN Brasil.

It is a position that Lula has already firmly defended. Last week, he told local media: “It is not because this guy has a lot of money that he can disrespect this country.”

“He’s an American citizen, he’s not a citizen of the world. He can’t continue to offend presidents, congressmen, the Senate, the Supreme Court… He has to respect the Supreme Court’s decision.”

Unsurprisingly, Musk’s rebuttal to the ban by Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes was scathing.

Following a court order requiring him to appoint a legal representative in Brazil, Musk posted an apparently AI-generated image of a bald man in a black robe behind bars, appearing to represent Moraes.

“One day, Alexander, this photo of you in prison will be real. Mark my words,” Musk wrote alongside the image.

Elon Musk has been backed by other business heavyweights, including Pershing Square founder and CEO Bill Ackman.

Ackman, a billionaire entrepreneur who invested in X, said the decision to block the site and freeze the accounts of Musk-led rocket company Starlink “put Brazil on a fast track to becoming an uninvestable market.”

In an interview last week, Lula said his country would not be “afraid” of the Tesla CEO or his threats, adding: “This guy has to accept the rules of this country, and if this country has made a decision through the Supreme Court, he has to accept it.”

X did not immediately respond to Fortune’request for comment.

A global example

Yesterday, the five members of Brazil’s Supreme Court unanimously upheld the order and supported the imposition of a fine on those who attempt to access the site through a virtual private network (VPN).

The move reportedly impacted some 20 million users in Brazil, with Musk blasting the government as an “oppressive regime… that is afraid of people learning the truth.”

This is not the first time that Elon Musk, in his self-proclaimed quest for free speech, has clashed with democratic bodies that accuse him of allowing misinformation to run wild on the platform.

Earlier this year, the European Union accused X of failing to comply with social media law, meaning it could face a hefty fine under the body’s Digital Services Act (DSA).

The DSA is a law designed to combat toxic and illegal content and algorithms online.

Once again, Elon Musk refuted these accusations. He posted on X: “The European Commission offered X an illegal secret deal: if we quietly censored speech without telling anyone, they wouldn’t fine us.

“The other platforms accepted this agreement. X did not.”

While Lula hopes that Brazil’s tough stance against X could prove an inspiration to other nations, it remains to be seen whether they will follow his lead and impose a total ban on the platform.

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