The investigation would involve an alleged money collection organized by X users for the purchase of a precision weapon that would be used against Lula. A profile identified as André Luiz made a comment on X saying that it was necessary to “make a collection to pay a mercenary with a high-precision rifle.”

“We remitted to the Federal Police the ruling to investigate the threat made to President Lula on social networks, referring to a precision rifle and a collection for such,” said the executive secretary of the Ministry, Ricardo Cappelli, in his personal account on X, and stressed that “social networks are not and will not be an incentive for crimes against authorities.”

CNN Brazil television station considered that the federal government is using the most recent episodes of attacks against public servants in cyberspace to revive the debate on the regulation of social networks through fake news bill.

A man was arrested in January in the northern state of Roraima due to a publication on digital platforms when he stated that “it would be time to put the bullet in his head,” referring to da Silva, who would pay a visit to that state.

In August, in the state of Pará, a farmer was arrested over allegations that he was planning an attack against the President, who would be passing through.

In his Conversa con el Presidente weekly program, da Sivla stressed that Brazil has to carefully examine the forms of regulation adopted by the European Union, the United States and China to define its way of controlling hate messages that circulate on the Internet, and pointed out that such a measure has to be thoroughly discussed so that it does not become a form of censorship.

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