BRAZIL BANS X AFTER SUPREME COURT ORDERS SUSPENSION OVER LEGAL DISPUTE
Brazil’s Supreme Court has banned X, formerly known as Twitter, for failing to comply with a deadline. The court ordered X to appoint a new legal representative and pay fines for not complying with a previous order.
Moraes asked for an “immediate and total suspension” of the platform.
The dispute first emerged in April when Moraes ruled to block several accounts on X.
Those accounts were said to have been used in the spread of disinformation. Most of them belonged to former President Jair Bolsonaro.
Elon Musk reacted strongly. “Free speech is the bedrock of democracy,” he said. “An unelected pseudo-judge in Brazil is destroying it for political purposes.”
This is not Musk’s first clash; he has argued with the EU and recently with UK Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer.
The suspension is in effect and is being carried out by Brazil’s telecom agency. In the next 24 hours, the platform should not be available.
Moraes also asked for X to be blocked by Apple and Google from their stores within five days. Users of VPN who may access X will be fined R$50,000.
Moraes’ ruling also obliges X to comply with Brazilian law and to pay the fines within the laid-down schedules.
X’s official account had been defiant in recent days, claiming the demands were unlawful. “We expect Judge Alexandre de Moraes will order X to be shut down,” the post read. “He demands we break Brazil’s laws. We won’t do that.”
Moraes previously ordered the blocking of X accounts associated with disinformation investigations. He threatened that the reactivation of any accounts would be the legal operators’ full responsibility at X.
Meanwhile, Starlink’s bank accounts have been ordered to be frozen in Brazil. Starlink is Musk’s satellite internet company that reacted to the order issued by the Supreme Court.
It reasoned it had no business being responsible for fines stipulated to X. To that end, Musk commented, “SpaceX and X are completely different companies.”
In 2022, Starlink was licensed to operate in Brazil. The country with large Amazon regions is important for the services of Starlink. The same Moraes is investigating Bolsonaro and his followers over alleged attempts at coups.
Brazil has previously banned other social media platforms. Telegram was banned last year. WhatsApp faced temporary bans in 2015 and 2016.
