Dem
48
Ties
1
GOP
51
A.B. in Lichfield is right that, at least in the U.S., the tragedy in the U.K. has become a culture wars thing (it does not help that it involves Taylor Swift, who enrages many conservatives, and Elon Musk, who enrages many liberals). There is also another eX-Twitter-centered culture wars battle unfolding right now, nearly 6,000 miles from London.
What happened, in brief, is that authorities in Brazil noticed that eX-Twitter often contains false and/or defamatory information. They told Elon Musk & Co. to knock it off, and nothing was changed. So, Brazilian supreme court Justice Alexandre de Moraes ordered that the platform be blocked in Brazil, which it was.
This dust-up has actually been unfolding for months, with Musk's responses invariably taking the form of temper tantrums. As Brazilian authorities turned up the heat, Musk shut down eX-Twitter's Brazilian office and terminated all the employees. He and his ventriloquist dummy Linda Yaccarino have since spent much time griping about censorship and persecution and yada, yada, yada. They have done nothing to address the Brazilian government's concerns, incidentally.
As chance would have it, this story has become a subject of much interest among Americans, particularly American right-wingers. These folks are, of course, convinced that conservative voices in general, and the voice of Musk in particular, are being silenced worldwide. Never mind that, in nearly all cases, Musk (and his fellow eX-Twitter users) get to say anything they want anytime they want. Anyhow, the NFL season opens this week, and the second game of the season (on Friday, at 5:15 p.m. PT) will feature the Green Bay Packers facing off against the Philadelphia Eagles in... São Paulo, Brazil.
Why is an American football league, which plays American (i.e., gridiron) football playing a game in Brazil? You will have to ask Commissioner Roger Goodell about that. Something about growing the game internationally, just in case Brazilians lose interest in association football (i.e., soccer). In any case, for the first time in a decade, there will be an NFL game with no live-tweeting from reporters, fans, or anyone else on the scene. Among many on the right, this is being treated as an offense against their freedoms on par with Jim Crow or the Stamp Act. There are many demands to relocate the game back to the U.S. This is not going to happen.
We don't know exactly how long the sturm und drang will last; probably it will expire shortly after the Packers defeat the Eagles. In any event, when paired with the U.K. story, it shows that dealing with the nonsense that eX-Twitter propagates is tough, regardless of what national law allows. (Z)