A São Paulo civil court has ordered Bruno Monteiro Aiub, known as Monark, to pay R$100,000 in collective moral damages over comments made on the Flow podcast in 2022 about the possible existence of a Nazi party in Brazil.¹

Judge Adriana Cardoso dos Reis of the 37th Civil Court said freedom of expression is not absolute and must be balanced against human dignity and Brazil’s constitutional rejection of racism. In her reasoning, Nazism was not a legitimate political ideology for democratic debate but a historical system of segregation and extermination. She cited the Supreme Federal Court’s Ellwanger precedent, under which antisemitic expression is not protected by freedom of thought because of its potential social harm.¹

The court concluded that advocacy for creating a Nazi party offended Brazilian society’s moral integrity. The award, with interest and inflation adjustment, is to be paid into the state fund for diffuse interests rather than to an individual claimant.²

Monark’s lawyers take a sharply different view. They called the decision “absolutely mistaken” and said he had “never defended Nazism, antisemitism or the creation of Nazi parties.”¹ Their position is that he advanced an anarchist-influenced, expansive view of free speech: even ideas broadly repudiated by society should be open to discussion, while still being opposed publicly.

The dispute also turns on procedure. The court treated Monark as in default after finding his response late and upheld service delivered to his condominium reception. His defense says the service was invalid and that the judge therefore declined to consider the merits of its case.¹

The São Paulo Public Prosecutor’s Office initially sought R$4 million, then briefly requested dismissal after one prosecutor distinguished defending a person’s right to speak from supporting that person’s ideology. The human-rights unit subsequently rejected that view and restored its push for liability.² Monark’s defense says it will appeal.