Brazil Demands Twitter Pay $1.8 Million in ‘Fines’ After Elon Musk Free Speech Cave AP Photo/Kirsty Wigglesworth, Pool, File

The social media platform X (formerly Twitter) must pay a fine of ten million Brazilian reais (roughly $1.84 million) to restore its services in Brazil, Supreme Federal Tribunal (STF) Minister Alexandre de Moraes announced over the weekend.

The demand comes roughly one month after de Moraes, an “anti-fake news” crusader, banned access to the X platform in Brazil after it initially refused to comply with censorship orders against a group of users as well as appoint a new legal representative in the country.

After initially loudly condemning the Brazilian government’s demands, X announced that it would comply with Brazilian court-mandated censorship and reinstated Rachel de Oliveira Villa as its legal representative in Brazil. Twitter reportedly submitted a formal request to de Moraes to allow for its reinstatement in Brazil following compliance with the censorship orders and other court-mandated requirements.

De Moraes, in a ruling issued on Friday, confirmed that X has complied with all the censorship orders issued by the court and appointed a legal representative in the country as requested by the Brazilian top court. He, nonetheless, conditioned the reinstatement of the platform in the country to the payment of the new $1.8 million fine.

The fine, according to the ruling, was imposed in response to the platform’s “failure to comply, for two days” with the ban in mid-September. On that date, users were reportedly able to access the X platform from within Brazilian territory. X described the incident as “inadvertent and temporary” and attributed it to a switch in network providers in Latin America.

In addition to the $1.8 fine, the court fined the social media platform’s legal representative Rachel de Oliveira Villa 300,000 Brazilian reais (roughly $55,284). The amount, according to the ruling, stems from the accumulated sum of a daily fine of 20,000 reais (roughly $3,656) imposed on the legal representative in mid-August at a time when the X platform was in defiance of the court’s orders.

“According to the ruling, made in Petition (PET) 12404, X proved that it had fully complied with two requirements for the resumption of activities: the blocking of profiles and the appointment of a legal representative of the company in the country,” the STF announced. “However, it has yet to prove payment of the fines for non-compliance with the decisions.”

The ruling stated that the STF ordered the Central Bank of Brazil to block the accounts of the X social media platform and its legal representatives, asserting that “no amounts were found sufficient to guarantee” the payment of Oliveira Villa’s fine in her accounts. The court demanded X inform if it will use the amounts the court order blocked to pay the fine and withdraw appeals filed against both the initial ban and the fines.

“The end of the suspension of the operation of the X platform in national territory and, consequently, the immediate return of its activities depend solely on full compliance with Brazilian legislation,  the ruling read, “and absolute observance of the decisions of the judiciary, in respect for national sovereignty.”

X’s compliance with de Moraes’ censorship orders comes after a months-long feud between de Moraes and X owner Elon Musk directly, following Musk’s initial refusal to comply with the censorship orders. Musk accused the judge of rigging the 2022 Brazilian election, which far-left President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva narrowly won against then-incumbent conservative President Jair Bolsonaro.

During Brazil’s 2022 presidential campaign, de Moraes imposed censorship orders on Bolsonaro’s campaign, banning it from describing Lula as a “thief” or “criminal” in reference to his multiple convictions on corruption charges.

De Moraes has spearheaded a widespread, years-long censorship campaign against conservative Brazilian citizens, politicians, journalists, and comedians supportive of Bolsonaro. He has ordered police raids and arrests of these individuals, as well as the removal of their social media accounts across several platforms such as X, Facebook, YouTube, or Instagram. Some have also had their bank accounts frozen.

Last week, during his speech at the United Nations General Assembly, Lula appeared to defend the censorship of conservative figures in Brazil, referring to it as necessary for “the defense of democracy.”

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Christian K. Caruzo is a Venezuelan writer and documents life under socialism. You can follow him on Twitter here.

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