Brazil’s first lady, Janja Lula da Silva, swore at billionaire Elon Musk during a G20 social event on Saturday at which she spoke about the need to regulate social media to rein in misinformation.
A ship’s horn sounded as she spoke and she joked, “I think it’s Elon Musk,” before adding, “I’m not afraid of you, fuck you, Elon Musk.”
Musk, owner of social network X, reacted to a video of her remarks by posting a laughing out loud emoji graphic. In another post, he added, “They are going to lose the next election,” in a reference to President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.
The president’s wife spoke at an event ahead of the Rio de Janeiro summit of the G20 group of largest nations set for Monday and Tuesday.
Musk’s social messaging network was suspended in Brazil for a month this year for failing to name a legal representative in the country and ignoring court orders to block accounts accused of spreading “fake news” and hate messages.
Brazilian law requires all internet companies to have a legal representative in the country.
Most of the accounts ordered blocked are run by backers of former President Jair Bolsonaro. Some of these accounts denied that he lost his 2022 reelection bid.
During the severe flooding in Brazil’s Rio Grande do Sul state in May 2024, Elon Musk donated 1,000 Starlink kits with free service for emergency first responders.
(REUTERS)
In a career spanning three decades and counting, Ramananda (Ram to his friends) has been the foreign editor of The Telegraph, Outlook Magazine and the New Indian Express. He helped set up rediff.com’s editorial operations in San Jose and New York, helmed sify.com, and was the founder editor of India.com.
His work has featured in national and international publications like the Al Jazeera Centre for Studies, Global Times and Ashahi Shimbun. But his one constant over all these years, he says, has been the attempt to understand rising India’s place in the world.
He can rustle up a mean salad, his oil-less pepper chicken is to die for, and all it takes is some beer and rhythm and blues to rock his soul.
Talk to him about foreign and strategic affairs, media, South Asia, China, and of course India.
