Brazilian Supreme Court Chief Justice Alexandre de Moraes ordered the suspension of X in the South American country after the platform refused to name a legal representative.
Justice Alexandre de Moraes warned Musk that X would be suspended in the country if he didn’t name a legal representative for the platform within 24 hours.
From the Associated Press:
In his decision, de Moraes gave internet service providers and app stores five days to block access to X, and said the platform will remain blocked until it complies with his orders. He also said people or companies who use virtual private networks, or VPNs, to access X will be subject to daily fines of 50,000 reais ($8,900).
“Elon Musk showed his total disrespect for Brazilian sovereignty and, in particular, for the judiciary, setting himself up as a true supranational entity and immune to the laws of each country,” de Moraes wrote.
Brazil is an important market for X, which has struggled with the loss of advertisers since Musk purchased the former Twitter in 2022. Market research group Emarketer says some 40 million Brazilians, roughly one-fifth of the population, access X at least once per month.
X had posted on its official Global Government Affairs page late Thursday that it expected X to be shut down by de Moraes, “simply because we would not comply with his illegal orders to censor his political opponents.”
BREAKING: Brazil Supreme Court orders 𝕏 to be fully suspended immediately. pic.twitter.com/Wvil0Yc9RX
— DogeDesigner (@cb_doge) August 30, 2024
🚨Just in: Brazil's Supreme Court Judge Alexandre de Moraes has ordered X (Twitter) to be banned in the country effective immediately. pic.twitter.com/vqAK1yckQZ
— The Calvin Coolidge Project (@TheCalvinCooli1) August 30, 2024
"When we attempted to defend ourselves in court, Judge de Moraes threatened our Brazilian legal representative with imprisonment. Even after she resigned, he froze all of her bank accounts. Our challenges against his manifestly illegal actions were either dismissed or ignored. Judge de Moraes’ colleagues on the Supreme Court are either unwilling or unable to stand up to him," X's Global Government Affairs page wrote.
"We are absolutely not insisting that other countries have the same free speech laws as the United States. The fundamental issue at stake here is that Judge de Moraes demands we break Brazil’s own laws. We simply won’t do that. In the days to come, we will publish all of Judge de Moraes’ illegal demands and all related court filings in the interest of transparency," it continued.
"Unlike other social media and technology platforms, we will not comply in secret with illegal orders. To our users in Brazil and around the world, X remains committed to protecting your freedom of speech," it added.
"Alexandre de Moraes is an evil dictator cosplaying as a judge," Elon Musk commented.
Alexandre de Moraes is an evil dictator cosplaying as a judge. https://t.co/ZIV8KbDCmk
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) August 30, 2024
Per The Guardian:
The deadline given to X to appoint a new legal representative in the country expired at 8.07pm local time on Thursday (0.07am BST on Friday). An hour later, Elon Musk’s social network announced it would not comply.
The dispute began in April when Moraes ordered the suspension of dozens of accounts for allegedly spreading disinformation – a request Musk has denounced as censorship.
President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva said in a radio interview on Friday morning: “Just because the guy [Musk] has a lot of money doesn’t mean they can disrespect you … Who does he think he is?”
X, formerly known as Twitter, has been without a legal representative in Brazil since 17 August, when Musk announced that his company was shutting down its operations in the country “effective immediately” due to what it called “censorship orders” from Moraes. The service has remained available to users in the country.
Moraes’ April order to X to block some accounts stemmed from an investigation into “digital militias” who backed former president Jair Bolsonaro’s attempts to stay in power after his 2022 election defeat. After Musk refused to comply, the judge included him in his investigation.
On Wednesday, Moraes gave the company 24 hours to appoint a new legal representative in Brazil – a requirement for foreign companies operating in the country – “under penalty of immediate suspension of the social network’s activities”.
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