Brazil's Supreme Court announced Friday that it instructed banks to transfer funds from Starlink and X accounts to pay the fines imposed by the court on Elon Musk's social network.
The court's chief judge, Alexandre de Moraes, and a panel of 5 other judges concluded that X had repeatedly violated Brazilian law by refusing to appoint a legal representative within the country and by refusing to remove from its platform content or profiles that the court deemed harmful to Brazil's democratic institutions.
The court ordered nearly 18.4 million Brazilian reals, or about $3.3 million, to be withdrawn from the accounts. Musk acquired X, then generally known as Twitter, in 2022. Starlink is SpaceX's satellite web service.
Following the transfers, the court ordered the discharge of X and Starlink's frozen bank accounts and assets, as there was now not any reason to maintain them.
The Court suspended X at the top of August and the suspension stays in effect.
Musk and his corporations have said they view de Moraes' actions as “illegal” and his court's orders as issued without due process. X and SpaceX didn’t immediately reply to requests for comment on Friday.
Brazilian News agency UOL reported earlier this month that a few of the accounts Musk ordered de Moraes to dam on X belonged to users who had allegedly threatened federal law enforcement officials involved in investigations into former right-wing Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro.
Bolsonaro is accused of inciting the January 8 riots in Brazil and attempting a coup there.
Musk is a supporter of Bolsonaro, partly because the previous Brazilian president gave his company Starlink permission to operate within the country.
Since April, Musk has increasingly made insults and calls for impeachment against de Moraes. 5 SeptemberHis long-time colleague on the helm of SpaceX, COO Gwynne Shotwell, has also launched online attacks on Brazil's Supreme Court.
She wrote: “@Alexandre please stop harassing Starlink and let's continue to serve the people of Brazil.”
Supporters of de Moraes and the STF viewed the orders against X Corp. as an assertion of Brazilian sovereignty.
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