{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://issa.house.gov/media/press-releases/issa-scott-probe-state-department-free-speech-violations-brazilian-government", "Issa, Scott Probe State Department on Free Speech Violations by Brazilian Government", "2024-10-01", "2024", "2024-10", "Republican", "House", "CA", "Darrell Issa", "I000056", "issa.house.gov", "issa", "https://issa.house.gov/media/press-releases", "scraper", "WASHINGTON \u2013 Congressman Darrell Issa (CA-48), senior member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, and Senator Rick Scott (R-FL) sent a bicameral letter to Secretary of State Blinken to demand the State Department take action on the censorship of free speech in Brazil by the country\u2019s supreme court.\n\nThe letter specifically details Brazilian Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes\u2019 decision to ban the social media platform X (formerly known as Twitter) from Brazil and levy fines against the platform and users.\n\nAn excerpt from the letter:\n\n\u201cAs you may know, in 2019, Brazil\u2019s Supreme Court granted itself new powers to investigate speech. Justice Moraes then used these powers to compel social media companies operating within Brazil to censor dissent and deplatform opposition under the auspices of combatting \u201cdisinformation.\u201d\n\nIn doing so, Moraes has acted concurrently as judge, investigator, and prosecutor. In July 2019, he went so far as to authorize a raid of the homes and even imprison opposition activists and allies of former President Jair Bolsonaro.\n\nThe Brazilian Supreme Court\u2019s actions to ban social media platform X in the world\u2019s seventh most populous nation is a grave breach of the UN Declaration of Human Rights, of which Brazil is a Member State. In fact, the Declaration\u2019s preamble states, \u201chuman beings shall enjoy freedom of speech\u201d and Article 19 asserts peoples\u2019 \u201cfreedom of opinion and expression.\u201d Further, Freedom of Speech is protected in Article 5 of the Brazilian Constitution, \u201cexpression of intellectual, artistic, scientific, and communication activity is free, independent of any censorship or license.\u201d\n\nThe letter was additionally signed by Reps. Maria Salazar (FL-27), Rich McCormick (GA-06), Warren Davidson (OH-08), Christopher Smith (NJ-04), Troy Nehls (TX-22), Michael Rulli (OH-06), Ben Cline (VA-06), and Senators Bill Cassidy (R-LA), Marco Rubio (R-FL), and Ted Cruz (R-TX).\n\nRead the full letter here.", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-07T21:57:20Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://issa.house.gov/media/press-releases/issa-scott-probe-state-department-free-speech-violations-brazilian-government"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 0.8444609120488167, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}