Amid protests in Brazil, Elon Musk hopes they resolve matters 'peacefully'

Twitter CEO Elon Musk on Monday said that he hopes Brazilians will be able to solve matters amicably, as supporters of former President Jair Bolsonaro stormed the country's Supreme Court, Congress and the presidential palace in protest against Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva taking over the helm of the country after narrowly defeating his predecessor.

Musk tweeted: "I hope that the people of Brazil are able to resolve matters peacefully."

The presidential election, whose results were announced on October 31, 2022, were marred by outrageous online disinformation spread by allies of both candidates.

Reports had surfaced in November last year that Musk personally moderated posts related to the Brazilian election.

"He is constantly calling balls and strikes," the reports said.

Musk met Bolsonaro during a trip to Brazil in May last year.

According to the New York Post, the right-wing president had called Musk's Twitter takeover bid a "breath of hope".

"It's the start of a relationship which I'm sure will soon end in marriage," Bolsonaro said about his meeting with Musk.

In December, Musk said he thought it was "possible" that Twitter employees in the content moderation team gave preference to left-wing candidates during the Brazil election.

"I've seen a lot of concerning tweets about the recent Brazil election," Musk posted on Twitter, when a follower asked about the Brazilian election being "handled" by the previous management.

"If those tweets are accurate, it's possible that Twitter personnel gave preference to left wing candidates," Musk added.

--IANS

na/ksk/