Supreme Federal Court Justice Cármen Lúcia has closed a lawsuit over Jair Bolsonaro’s decision to block a journalist on X, ruling that the case no longer has a practical object because the former president left office in January 2023.¹

The ruling does not endorse the blocking itself. Lúcia said that when a public official uses a social-media profile to announce government actions, the account acquires a public function and cannot be treated as wholly private. “No one governs a Republic of themselves,” she wrote, adding that citizens cannot be excluded from public debate because of political or ideological preferences.¹

The journalist was blocked in 2019 after criticizing Bolsonaro’s response to Amazon fires. His case argued that an account followed by millions functioned as an informal presidential communications channel, limiting both access to information and the ability to report when critics were excluded.¹ Abraji, the Brazilian Association of Investigative Journalism, said at least 65 profiles had been blocked and similarly contended that the account should remain accessible to journalists and the public.²

Bolsonaro’s defense and the federal government’s legal office took the opposite view, arguing that the profile was personal and that its owner retained the same ability as any citizen to decide who could interact with posts.¹

Lúcia’s decision draws a distinction between the past and the present: because Bolsonaro no longer holds executive office, his account no longer carries the status of an official act, making the specific lawsuit moot. Yet her reasoning remains clear. “A representative cannot hide from those represented, still less in a Republic,” she wrote, describing social networks used by officials as a digital public square.²