Brazil's Supreme Court on Friday ordered a nationwide blockade of Elon Musk's social network X after the corporate said it was defying previous court orders on content moderation and the appointment of a legal representative within the country.
Alexandre de Moraes, the court's chief judge, also ordered every day fines for people or firms in Brazil that use virtual private networks (VPNs) or other methods to access X while the positioning is banned within the country. G1 Globe reported.
The court made a press release via the Brazilian government website on Friday, saying it had “ordered the immediate and total suspension of the operations of X, formerly Twitter, throughout the national territory until the court decisions are implemented and the fines imposed are paid.” The statement also said the order could be valid “until a representative of the company is appointed in the country.”
Hours later, the court issued a second order Some of the measures in his first 51-page order against X were suspended. First, de Moraes gave firms like Apple and Google five days to stop offering downloads of X of their app stores and to stop providing VPN apps to access X. The second order lifted that deadline and postponed implementation of those measures until further notice, giving X time to pay fines and appoint legal counsel.
Brazil's Supreme Court announced on Wednesday that Musk and X had 24 hours to either appoint a legal representative for his or her business there or face a nationwide “penalty of suspension of their activities.” The deadline expired on Thursday evening.
X's Global Government Affairs Division said in a press release Late Thursday, it said it expected de Moraes to shut “imminently” because the corporate would “not comply” with its orders.
Brazil, a key U.S. ally outside NATO, is currently preparing for local elections in October. Brazilian law requires social media firms within the country to rent someone to handle government warnings, including those related to political misinformation and incitement to violence.
X doesn’t have such a representative in Brazil and announced earlier this month that it might quite remove all its employees from the country than face possible arrest for failing to comply with court orders.
A suspension of X in Brazil could cause business problems for Musk's already struggling company. Brazil has a population of greater than 171 million lively social media users by market Research by Oosga.
Musk led the $44 billion acquisition of Twitter in late 2022. He implemented sweeping changes and reinstated previously locked and suspended accounts, prompting many major advertisers to scale back or completely abandon their ad campaign spending.
The World Bank stopped Funding campaigns on X after a CBS News investigation found that the organization's ads appeared under a racist post from an X account that often posted “pro-Nazi and white nationalist content.”
Musk attacked de Moraes in a series of posts after the court froze the funds of Starlink, Musk's SpaceX's satellite web service in Brazil. Starlink has advertised on X under Musk's leadership and Musk has encouraged people in Brazil to make use of Starlink to access the social media platform.
The de Moraes court had fined X for alleged violations of Brazilian law and froze Starlink's funds within the country to make sure payment of the fines.
Critics of de Moraes see his court's orders against X as an overreach. His court has a history of blocking social media apps until they comply with the country's regulations. For example, Meta-owned apps Whatsapp and Telegram were each blocked in Brazil but have since been reinstated.
On Friday, Musk compared de Moraes to a movie villain Voldemort and shared a post during which he “endorsed the evil tyranny by Moraes.”
Representatives of X and the U.S. Embassy in Brazil were not immediately available for comment.
Musk has repeatedly called de Moraes' court orders censorship. In his statement Thursday, X said the de Moraes court had taken “illegal motion” against the company.
On Friday, after the suspension was announced, Musk said on X: “The oppressive regime in Brazil is so afraid of individuals learning the reality that it would bankrupt anyone who tries.”
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