The Brazilian Supreme Court banned the social network X/Twitter due to its moderation policy. The largest country in South America is home to 227 million people.
The reason for the ban was the failure to fulfill the requirement to appoint a new representative of the company in Brazil. The legal dispute that led to the previous representative’s withdrawal arose from the company’s unblocking of X/Twitter accounts, which the country’s authorities accuse of misinformation.
Brazilian Supreme Court Judge Alexandre de Moraes ordered the National Telecommunications Agency (Anatel) to restrict access to X within 24 hours and gave Apple and Google five days to remove X from their app stores. The country is also imposing daily fines of 50,000 reais ($8900) for using X through a VPN.
Earlier this month, Musk shut down X’s offices in Brazil due to the threat of arrest of a company representative who refused to comply with a court order to block users. On Wednesday, August 29, the Brazilian Supreme Court informed X that if the company did not appoint a new legal representative within 24 hours, the platform would be banned. The next day, the threat was carried out. Elon Musk, in his usual manner, told everything he thinks about the Brazilian judicial system and the presidential election in the country:
There is growing evidence that fake judge @Alexandre engaged in serious, repeated & deliberate election interference in Brazil’s last presidential election.
Under Brazilian law, that would mean up to 20 years in prison.
And, I’m sorry to say that it appears that some former…
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) September 1, 2024
«There is growing evidence that the fake judge @Alexandre was involved in serious, repeated and deliberate election interference during the last presidential election in Brazil. Under Brazilian law, this would mean up to 20 years in prison. And I’m sorry to say that it appears that some former Twitter employees were complicit and helped him do it. Anyone with examples or evidence of this, please reply to this post».
Brazilian authorities launched an investigation against X in April after Musk claimed that he had reactivated accounts that X had been ordered to block for spreading disinformation. Many of the accounts that de Moraes ordered X to block are associated with supporters of the country’s former president, Jair Messias Bolsonaro (who professed right-wing views, unlike the current president, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva).
«We are absolutely not advocating that other countries have the same free speech laws as the United States. The fundamental issue at stake here is that Judge de Moraes is asking us to violate Brazil’s own laws. We simply will not do that», — it says in an official statement by X. The company says it will make public all the documents that prove this.
Brazil requires major social platforms to have a legal representative in the country. In the past, the country also briefly banned other social networks, including Telegram and WhatsApp.
Starlink, which is part of Elon Musk’s SpaceX, said that Judge de Moraes also ordered the freezing of the company’s accounts. «This order is based on the unreasonable determination that Starlink should be held liable for fines levied — unconstitutionally — against X», — reports Starlink.
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