“Fuck you, Elon Musk!” Brazil’s first lady, Rosangela “Janja” da Silva, insulted the American billionaire and future member of the Trump administration on Saturday, two days before a G20 summit in Rio de Janeiro.
During an impromptu intervention during a workshop on disinformation during the G20 Social, a forum bringing together activists and representatives of NGOs and civil society, “Janja” pleaded for regulation of social networks. At one point, seeming disturbed by a noise, she interrupts her speech, looks up then squats down, laughing.
“I think it’s Elon Musk,” she said, getting up. “I’m not afraid of you either. Fuck you, Elon Musk!” (“Fuck you, Elon Musk”) she says to applause and cheers.
In a comment on the right-wing X account Visegrad 24, Elon Musk responded with laughter and the phrase: “they will lose the next election.”
The boss of the social network
X was suspended for 40 days by Supreme Court judge Alexandre de Moraes, who considered that the social network promoted disinformation. Elon Musk has repeatedly accused the magistrate of “censorship”, calling him the “dictator” and comparing him to Voldemort, the villain of the Harry Potter saga.
X finally complied to the judge’s injunctions by removing accounts suspected of disinformation, most of which are sympathizers of the ex-far-right president Jair Bolsonaro (2019-2022), paid heavy fines and appointed a new legal representative . Alexandre de Moraes finally lifted the suspension on October 9.
“We already have another diplomatic problem,” commented Jair Bolsonaro on X. One of his lawyers questioned the possible consequences of the insult uttered by the wife of President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva against a future member of the American government.
“If Brazil suffers sanctions from the United States because of these irresponsible and totally gratuitous statements, what will happen?” lawyer Fabio Wajngarten wrote on former Twitter, suggesting that the first lady’s comments constituted “incitement to hatred.”
