Is Brazil beset by censorship and facing the end of free speech? Is Musk really a defender of rights? Even setting aside his biography, the questions about the origins of his riches, or the questionable ways in which he chooses to express himself, that thought might bring a bitter smile to the 13,000 workers he fired from the social network since he became its owner. And they might stir outrage in the hundreds of “moderators” who were dismissed with an email because their role at soon-to-be-renamed “X” had suddenly been deemed useless.

Still, questions about censorship and free speech have been swirling recently. Notably, on Saturday, just about every right-wing leader across the world joined in a chorus on X in support of Elon Musk's own words from a five-day-old tweet posted on Wednesday in which he angrily responded to Brazilian judge De Moraes’s order that X should appoint a legal representative in the country, under a tight deadline and on pain of suspension. Musk’s cry of “censorship” was dutifully amplified by those who have a cordial relationship with the world's second-richest man: on Saturday, most echoed the word and the accusation against the Brazilian judge in short tweets or Facebook messages – everyone from Trump to Italy’s own Simone Pillon, another unlikely figure.

What about everyone else? They chose to respond not with 240-character screeds, but with........

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