Jaque Silva | SOPA Images | Lightrocket | Getty Images
Brazil’s supreme court on Friday ordered a nationwide suspension of Elon Musk’s social network X after the corporate vowed to defy earlier court orders concerning content moderation and the appointment of a legal representative within the country.
Alexandre de Moraes, the court’s top judge, has also ordered each day fines for people or businesses in Brazil that use virtual private networks (VPNs) or other methods to access X while the positioning is banned within the country, G1 Globo reported.
The court issued a press release via its government website in Brazil on Friday, saying that it had ordered “the immediate and complete suspension of the operation of X, formerly Twitter, throughout the national territory until the Court’s judicial decisions are complied with and the fines applied are paid.” The statement also said that the order might be valid “until a representative of the corporate within the country is appointed.”
Hours later, the court issued a second order suspending among the measures in its first 51-page order against X. Initially, de Moraes gave corporations like Apple and Google 5 days to stop offering X downloads of their app stores, and to stop making VPN apps available to access X. The second order eliminated that deadline and postpone implementation of those measures until further notice, giving time for X to pay fines and put a legal representative in place.
Brazil’s supreme court announced on Wednesday that Musk and X had 24 hours to either appoint a legal representative for its business there or face a “penalty of suspension of activities” nationwide. The deadline passed Thursday evening.
X’s global government affairs unit said in a press release late Thursday that it was expecting the de Moraes shutdown “soon,” because the corporate “wouldn’t comply” together with his orders.
Brazil, a significant non-NATO ally of the U.S., is now preparing for October municipal elections. Under Brazil’s laws, social media corporations operating within the country must employ someone to handle government takedown notices, including those regarding political misinformation and incitements to violence.
X has no such representative in Brazil, and it said earlier this month that it will remove all its employees from the country moderately than face any possible arrests over non-compliance with court orders.
A suspension of X in Brazil could cause business problems for Musk’s already embattled company. Brazil has a population of greater than 171 million lively social media users, in response to market research by Oosga.
Musk led the $44 billion acquisition of Twitter in late 2022. He implemented sweeping changes and reinstated previously banned and suspended accounts, leading many major advertisers to flee or cut spending on ad campaigns.
The World Bank stopped paying for campaigns on X after a CBS News investigation found ads from the organization appeared under a racist post from an X account that usually posted “pro-Nazi and white nationalist content.”
Musk lashed out at de Moraes in a series of posts after the court had frozen the funds of Starlink, the satellite web service provided by Musk’s SpaceX, in Brazil. Starlink has advertised on X under Musk’s management and Musk has encouraged people in Brazil to make use of Starlink to access the social media platform.
De Moraes’ court had fined X for alleged violations of Brazilian law and froze Starlink funds within the country to make sure those fines are paid.
Critics of de Moraes view his courts’ orders against X as an overreach. His court has a history of suspending social media apps until they comply with regulations within the country. Meta-owned Whatsapp and Telegram have each been suspended in Brazil but reinstated, for instance.
On Friday, Musk compared de Moraes to movie villain Voldemort and shared a post describing “the evil tyranny of Moraes.”
Representatives for X and for the U.S. embassy in Brazil weren’t immediately available to comment.
Musk has repeatedly denounced de Moraes’ court orders as censorship. In its Thursday statement, X said de Moraes court had taken “illegal actions” against the corporate.
On Friday after news of the suspension, Musk on X, “The oppressive regime in Brazil is so afraid of the people learning the reality that they are going to bankrupt anyone who tries.”
