The House Judiciary Committee released an interim staff report outlining new evidence that Brazil’s censorship regime is targeting speech inside the United States and pressuring American social media companies to comply or face legal action and removal from the country.
According to the report and newly obtained nonpublic documents, the censorship system led by Brazilian Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes issues global takedown orders, coordinates with censorship efforts in other countries, and removes legal protections for platforms. The committee says these actions have directly targeted U.S.-based speech, including posts from Brazilian journalists and political commentators living in the United States, as well as content praising President Trump and criticizing Joe Biden.
The report states that when platforms such as X and Rumble refused to fully comply, Brazilian authorities fined them and threatened or ordered them to cease operations in Brazil. It warns that forcing American companies to censor U.S. residents’ speech creates a broader threat to First Amendment protections.
The report also says Brazil’s censorship network is coordinating with similar foreign censorship regimes and Stanford University. It alleges that Stanford previously played a central role in “laundering U.S. government censorship requests” to social media companies in an effort to influence the 2020 U.S. election, and that it has since shifted from enabling domestic censorship to aiding foreign censorship efforts.
The committee said it will continue oversight and pursue legislative responses to counter foreign censorship threats.
Read the Press Release from the House Judiciary Committee
