Calls rise to cancel Brazil NFL game

The Philadelphia Eagles and Green Bay Packers face off in São Paulo, Brazil next Friday in what may be the NFL’s first game in more than a decade with no tweeting from the press box or stands. That’s because Brazilian Supreme Court judge Alexandre de Moraes has blocked all of X/Twitter across that country. He issued that order Friday as part of an escalating fight with Elon Musk, owner of the social media service.

There’s a lot of background here. Back in April, de Moreas ordered an investigation into the dissemination of false and defamatory news on X, and another one into potential “obstruction, incitement and criminal organization” from the company. Some of that is about fallout from the 2022 Brazilian presidential election , which saw left-wing Workers’ Party candidate Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva defeat incumbent far-right candidate Jair Bolsonaro of the Liberal Party. That’s led to pushback from Bolsonaro supporters, both online and in person (including with a January 2023 mob that tried to storm the capital ).

Around that, de Moreas has ordered the removal of several Bolsonaro-supporting accounts across social media services for spreading disinformation. Most platforms have complied, and even X appeared to remove some of the accounts in question. But Musk has pushed back with repeated shots at de Moreas, saying he’s suppressing free speech and calling him “Brazil’s Darth Vader.”

Last week, Musk closed X’s local office in Brazil (which The New York Times initially misheadlined as him closing down the service there) and withdrew personnel, saying de Moreas had threatened local representatives with arrest if they didn’t remove certain accounts. de Moreas then demanded X appoint a local representative, X refused, and de Moreas froze the accounts of internet provider Starlink (also owned by Musk) and issued an order Friday to block X in the country (which is the platform’s fourth-largest market, with more than 20 million users). That move began being carried out Saturday . Other social media platforms, i ncluding X rival Bluesky , have complied with the Brazilian laws here and are unaffected by this ban.

That’s prompted backlash, though. And it’s getting a lot of U.S. attention, especially ahead of the first NFL game in the country Friday. Some, including Outkick founder/conservative radio host Clay Travis, have even called for the league to cancel its game over this:

There have been further calls from others for the NFL to cancel the game after this:

It seems unlikely the NFL is going to cancel a long-in-the-works international game over a fight between the Brazilian judiciary and Musk’s privately-owned social media company. But it’s interesting that they’re getting some calls to. And that perhaps brings the NFL back towards the culture wars discussions they were heavily featured in not that long ago, something the league’s seemingly tried hard to avoid since then.

And when it comes to X in particular, there’s further notable history with them and the NFL. Last September, Media Matters For America reported that X had been placing NFL ads on prominent white nationalist accounts, including some that had attacked the league as “anti-white.” In response, the NFL “ expressed their concerns ” to X, but did not pause or pull their advertising.

The NFL also didn’t pause or pull advertising in November around controversy surrounding Musk retweeting and replying to antisemitic comments and corporate ads appearing next to accounts with racist and antisemitic posts. That led to four of the league’s broadcast partners suspending ad campaigns. But the NFL again just chose to “express concerns,” with chief business officer Brian Rolapp saying “We continue to work with them because our fans are clearly there.” Meanwhile, Musk responded by telling the advertisers who suspended campaigns “ go f*** yourself ,” and he and the platform have launched lawsuits against prominent advertisers and advertising groups (not the NFL broadcasters, though) and Media Matters For America .

It’s unclear if the NFL is going to take any position on X’s fight with the Brazilian judiciary. Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk asked the league for comment Friday , but didn’t receive a response. But, at the very least, this game (which has already received a lot of discussion around wildfires , crime , and bad aggregation of reports on those and other fronts) is now drawing further attention, and could wind up even more in the political sphere of debate. And, if nothing else, it seems likely to be a rare game that won’t see on-the-ground tweets.

[ The Washington Post ]

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