– In recent days, all Brazilians have witnessed a series of events that have further highlighted the serious setbacks that freedom and legal security have suffered in Brazil.

– X was banned for questioning court decisions that required not only the removal of specific posts but the permanent deletion of profiles and pages. This constitutes prior censorship, a practice clearly prohibited by our Constitution and a serious violation of fundamental rights.

– Worse: by banning Brazil's main social network, we are not punishing a company or a businessman, but millions of Brazilians, who are deprived of access to free information and prevented from expressing their thoughts.

– Shortly before this decision, the same minister who banned X censored Folha de São Paulo, preventing one of the country's largest newspapers from publishing an interview with Filipe Martins, an innocent man who was imprisoned for over six months without trial on the allegation that he had made a trip he never took.

– The same minister turned a trivial argument over an airport queue into an "attack on democracy," making a law-abiding and orderly family the target of a police investigation without any legal justification.

– Now, we find that Starlink is also being arbitrarily punished, becoming a collateral victim of a judicial dispute it has nothing to do with. This further undermines legal security in Brazil and international investors' confidence in the country. Brazil needs to be a safe harbor for investment and innovation, but unfortunately, we are moving in the opposite direction, driving away investors and rejecting companies that are among the most innovative in the world. Undermining this confidence puts at risk our ability to grow, create jobs, and bring new technologies that drive the country's development.

– All of this comes to light at a time when, day after day, new revelations from journalist Glenn Greenwald, published by Folha de São Paulo, show us that these investigations are conducted without any respect for due legal process and with pre-selected targets. In these investigations, people are not being investigated based on facts or their actions, but because of who they are and what they think and defend politically.

– When justice acts selectively in this way, we all risk losing the guarantees that are assured to us by the Constitution. When prior censorship is normalized, the entire society loses its freedom and dignity. When freedom of expression and freedom of the press are threatened, Democracy cries out for help.

– For all these reasons, I call on all Brazilians who love freedom and care about the health of our democracy: come to Avenida Paulista next Saturday, September 7!

– Defending everything that makes a nation free, fair, and democratic is the responsibility of all of us, regardless of political stance or electoral preferences.

– If you are in São Paulo or can go there this weekend, don't just follow the demonstrations on TV or the Internet. Join us, in person, on Avenida Paulista!

– Saturday, September 7, 2024, freedom needs all of us.