Amid Brazils battle to muzzle Musks X, Elon eyes tech triumph in free-speech wars

“Can’t stop the signal,” a famous line from the movie “Serenity”, has become something of a catchphase among geeks — meaning that messages of truth cannot be contained. But stopping the signal is exactly what a lot of governments are trying to do these days, with mixed but depressing results.Under Article 19 of the UN’s Universal Declaration of Human Rights, “Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom ..

.to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers.”That sounds a lot like what Elon Musk is defending against the government of Brazil, and what his opponents there are doing their best to muzzle.Brazil’s socialist president Lula da Silva and its activist Supreme Court have been trying to force Musk’s X (formerly Twitter) to censor content that favors Lula’s opponent, former President Jair Bolsonaro.  X remains blocked in Brazil, and a Brazilian court seized money damages not only from X, but also from Starlink, a company in which Musk is a minority shareholder. Britain’s Guardian called this move “a first among non-autocratic nations.” Well, for some values of “non-autocratic” .

.. As Wall Street Journal columnist Mary Anastasia O’Grady put it, “If free speech is a measure of a modern liberal democracy, Brazil is in trouble.”But the impasse is sparking discussion about whether technology will soon make it even harder for governments to censor our communications and stifle free expression.Musk’s Starlink, the wireless satellite internet system that is offering service around the world (and that recently won a contract to provide free Internet onboard United Airlines flights), may soon give users a way to end-run even the most restrictive of autocrats.Until recently, Starlink Internet service worked like this: Subscribers got an antenna that connects to one of the company’s thousands of satellites in low Earth orbi...