SAO PAULO, Sept 8, (AP):  Thousands of supporters of former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro flooded Sao Paulo’s main boulevard for an Independence Day rally Saturday, buoyed by the government's blocking of tech billionaire Elon Musk's X platform, a ban they say is proof of their political persecution. A few thousand demonstrators, clad in the yellow-and-green colors of Brazil's flag, poured onto Av. Paulista.

References to the ban on X and images of Musk abounded. "Thank you for defending our freedom,” read one banner praising the tech entrepreneur. Saturday’s march was seen as a test of Bolsonaro’s capacity to mobilize turnout ahead of the October municipal elections, even though Brazil's electoral court has barred him from running for office until 2030.

It's also something of a referendum on X, whose suspension has raised eyebrows even among some of Bolsonaro's opponents all the while stoking the flames of Brazil's deep-seated political polarization. Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes ordered X’s nationwide ban on Aug. 30 after months of feuding with Musk over the limits of free speech.

The powerful judge has spearheaded efforts to ban far-right users from spreading misinformation on social media, and he ramped up his clampdown after die-hard Bolsonaro supporters ransacked Congress and the presidential palace on Jan. 8, 2023, in an attempt to overturn Bolsonaro's defeat in the presidential election.

On Saturday, Bolsonaro called Moraes a "dictator” and called on Brazil's Senate to impeach the judge. He also repeated the false claim that President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva had colluded with the judiciary to steal the 2022 election. "They want to censor the truth, so the people don't know the truth,” Bolsonaro, with a raspy voice from a virus that sent him to the hospital earlier in the day, told the crowd.