Smoke signs, carrier pigeons, letters, or tweets?
It is up to you, whether and how you communicate your thoughts to others, or take note of others' ideas. But your right to freedom of expression is guaranteed. By national and international law.
Take Art. 19 Sec. 2 ICCPR: "Everyone shall have the right to freedom of expression; this right shall include freedom to seek, receive and impart information and ideas of all kinds, regardless of frontiers, either orally, in writing or in print, in the form of art, or through any other media of his choice." There you have it.
And that's a good thing. Because the right to seek, receive, and impart thoughts and ideas freely is vital for democracy.
Note: What's guaranteed is to express yourself freely. Not eloquently, flawlessly, smartly, correctly, nicely... All these attributes may be desirable - I encourage you to make excellent and beautiful, by all means, contributions to public discourse - but they are certainly not necessary to enjoy the legal protection of expression. In fact, "Freedom of expression ... is applicable not only to 'information' or 'ideas' that are favourably received or regarded as inoffensive or as a matter of indifference, but also to those that offend, shock or disturb the State or any sector of the population." (Handyside v. UK, ECHR 1976, para 49).
Sure, the exercise of the abovementioned rights carries with it special duties and responsibilities. It may therefore be subject to certain restrictions, but these shall only be such as are provided by law and are necessary to achieve certain prescribed ends (cf. Art. 19 Sect. 3 ICCPR).
In Brazil, on Aug. 30, a Supreme Court judge ordered a nationwide ban on X, and imposed a fine on, among other things, anyone using a VPN to technically bypass the ban. This marks the culmination of several months of legal struggle concerning content published by users on the platform and its availability in the country. With well over 20 million users of the service in Brazil alone, X can rightfully be deemed a major platform for communication in the country, let alone globally.
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Whether or not you use or particularly like X is not the issue. It's proportionality. Shutting down the entire service, leaving millions of law-abiding citizens without the means of their choice to communicate, receive information, and express opinions, amounts to censorship.
Censorship is not an option. Everyone is free to take part in the discourse, through expressing opinions, receiving and sharing information and taking note of and responding to the opinions of others.
Join more than 100 notable protagonists of freedom of expression in their appeal to the Federal Senate and the Chamber of Deputies of Brazil to restore the free flow of information, and respect the rights of its citizens to express their views without fear of retribution.
Don't like digital media? Consider sending a pigeon with your letter to Brasília! The choice of means is entirely yours. But please don't remain silent. Make good use of your rights, express your thoughts, and contribute to the discourse. When it comes to discourse, even worse than censorship is self-censorship.