Urged on by beleaguered ex-president Jair Bolsonaro, tens of thousands of demonstrators from Brazil's political right took to the streets Saturday amid a free speech tussle that has seen social media platform X suspended in the country.

Archconservative Bolsonaro denounced the judge who ordered the suspension of X, the former Twitter which is popular among Brazil's conservatives, as a "dictator."

"We must put a stop to those who exceed the limits of our Constitution," he told the sea of protesters clad in the yellow and green colors of the Brazilian flag, referring to Supreme Court justice Alexandre de Moraes.