Top Brazilian judge orders suspension of X platform in Brazil over conflict with Elon Musk

Sao Paulo — A Brazilian Supreme Court judge on Friday ordered the suspension of Elon Musk’s social media giant X in Brazil after the tech billionaire refused to appoint a legal representative in the country, according to a copy of the decision seen by The Associated Press

This measure further aggravates the situation that has been going on for months. quarrel between the two men on freedom of expression, far-right accounts and disinformation.

Judge Alexandre de Moraes warned on Wednesday night that X could be blocked in Brazil if it did not comply with his order to appoint a representative, and set a deadline of 24 hours. The company has not had a representative in the country since the beginning of the month.

In his ruling, Judge de Moraes gave internet service providers and app stores five days to block access to X, and said the platform would remain blocked until it complies with his orders. He also said individuals or companies that use virtual private networks, or VPNs, to access X will be subject to daily fines of 50,000 reais ($8,900).

“Elon Musk has shown his total lack of respect for Brazilian sovereignty and, in particular, for the judicial system, by setting himself up as a true supranational entity and immune to the laws of each country,” wrote de Moraes.

Brazil is an important market for X, which has struggled to loss of advertisers since Musk bought the former Twitter in 2022. Market research group Emarketer says some 40 million Brazilians, or about a fifth of the population, access X at least once a month.

X had posted on his official Global Government Affairs page on Thursday night that he expected X to be shut down by de Moraes, “simply because we would not comply with his illegal orders to censor his political opponents.”

“When we tried to defend ourselves in court, Judge de Moraes threatened our Brazilian legal representative with imprisonment. Even after she resigned, he froze all her bank accounts,” the company wrote. “Our appeals against his blatantly illegal actions have been either rejected or ignored. Judge de Moraes’ colleagues at the Supreme Court are unwilling or unable to stand up to him.”

X clashed with de Moraes over his reluctance to comply with orders to block users.

Among the accounts the platform has already closed on Brazil’s orders are those of lawmakers affiliated with former President Jair Bolsonaro’s right-wing party and activists accused of undermining Brazilian democracy.

Elon Musk, who calls himself an “absolute defender of free speech,” has repeatedly claimed that the judge’s actions amount to censorship, and his argument has been echoed by Brazil’s political right. He has often insulted De Moraes on his platform, calling him a dictator and a tyrant.

De Moraes’s defenders said his actions against unknown individuals were legal, supported by most of the court’s justices, and served to protect democracy at a time when it is in danger. His order Friday relies on Brazilian law that requires foreign companies to have representation in the country so they can be informed when legal proceedings are initiated against them.

Given that operators are aware of the widely publicized standoff and their obligation to comply with an order from de Moraes, and that doing so is not complicated, X could be offline as soon as 12 hours after receiving their instructions, said Luca Belli, coordinator of the Technology and Society Center at the Getulio Vargas Foundation, a university in Rio de Janeiro.

The closure is not unprecedented in Brazil.

Isolated Brazilian judges shut down WhatsApp, the country’s most widely used messaging app, repeatedly in 2015 and 2016 over the company’s refusal to comply with police requests for user data. In 2022, de Moraes threatened the messaging app Telegram with a nationwide shutdown, arguing that it had repeatedly ignored Brazilian authorities’ demands to block profiles and provide information. He ordered Telegram to appoint a local representative; the company eventually complied and remained online.

X and its former incarnation, Twitter, have been banned in several countries, primarily authoritarian regimes like Russia, China, Iran, Myanmar, North Korea, Venezuela, and Turkmenistan. Other countries, like PakistanTurkey and Egypt have also temporarily suspended X before, generally to quell dissent and unrest. Twitter was banned in Egypt after the Arab Spring uprisings, which some dubbed the “Twitter revolution,” but it has since been reinstated.

A search of X on Friday showed hundreds of Brazilian users inquiring about VPNs that could potentially allow them to continue using the platform by making it appear as if they were connecting from abroad. It was not immediately clear how Brazilian authorities would police this practice and impose fines, de Moraes said.

Mariana de Souza Alves Lima, known by her pseudonym MariMoon, showed her 1.4 million followers on X that she would be going to rival social network BlueSky, posting a screenshot and saying: “That’s where I’m going.”

X said he planned to release what he called de Moraes’ “illegal requests” and related court documents “in the interest of transparency.”

Also Thursday night, Elon Musk’s satellite internet provider Starlink said on X that de Moraes had frozen his finances this week, preventing him from making any transactions in the country where he has more than 250,000 customers.

“This order is based on an unfounded decision that Starlink should be liable for the fines imposed – unconstitutionally – on X. It was issued in secret and without granting Starlink any of the due process guarantees guaranteed by the Brazilian Constitution. We intend to settle this matter in court,” Starlink said in its statement.

Musk responded to people who shared the news of the freeze, adding insults aimed at de Moraes. “This guy @Alexandre is a true criminal of the worst kind, posing as a judge,” he wrote.

Elon Musk then posted on X that SpaceX, which operates Starlink, would provide free internet service in Brazil “until the problem is resolved” because “we can’t receive payment, but we don’t want to cut anyone off.”

In his decision, de Moraes said he ordered the freezing of Starlink’s assets because X did not have enough money in its accounts to cover the increasing fines, and considering that the two companies are part of the same economic group.

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Ortutay reported from San Francisco.