Elon Musk, chief executive of Tesla, SpaceX and X Corp., stepped up his online attacks on Brazilian Supreme Court judge Alexandre de Moraes on Thursday, amid a worsening political and legal dispute between the tech billionaire and his corporations and Brazil's top court.
De Moraes' court announced on Wednesday Musk and X Corp. were ordered to appoint a legal representative for the social media company (formerly Twitter) in Brazil inside 24 hours, otherwise X faces the “penalty of suspension of its activities.”
A blocking of X in Brazil could cause serious business problems for the already struggling social network. Brazil has a population of greater than 171 million lively social media users by market Research by Oosga.
The country is preparing for local elections in October. And under Brazilian law, social networks there must employ someone to receive and review official warnings about political false reports.
X doesn’t have any such worker in Brazil after the corporate announced earlier this month that it will withdraw all its employees from the country.
On Wednesday evening, Musk posted a doctored image that appeared to indicate the judge behind bars. “One day, @Alexandre, that picture of you in prison will be real. Mark my words,” Musk wrote to de Moraes and Musk's 195.8 million followers on X.
On Thursday, G1 Globo in Brazil had revealed that de Moraes had ordered “the freezing of all financial assets” of Musk's corporations in Brazil, including SpaceX's own Starlink, to “guarantee the payment of the fines” imposed by the court on X.
“Earlier this week we received an order from the Supreme Court of Brazil @alexandre de Moraes, which freezes Starlink’s finances and prevents Starlink from conducting financial transactions in that country,” the corporate said in a post late Wednesday.
“This order is based on the unsubstantiated finding that Starlink should be responsible for the fines imposed – unconstitutionally – on X,” the corporate said. “It was issued in secret and without granting Starlink the due process guaranteed by the Brazilian Constitution. We intend to resolve the matter legally.”
Starlink is a satellite web service operated by SpaceX. It is now approved for industrial operation in 105 countries, including Brazil. Starlink has been promoting itself on X under Musk's leadership, and Musk has encouraged people in Brazil to make use of Starlink to access X.
Musk, X Corp. CEO Linda Yaccarino and SpaceX representatives didn’t reply to CNBC's request for further information Thursday afternoon.
On Thursday, Musk called de Moraes “an outright criminal” who only “poses as a judge” in a post on X. The tech billionaire continued, “The tyrant, @Alexandre, is the dictator of Brazil. Lula is his lapdog,” referring to Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, who was elected president of Brazil in 2022, defeating far-right former president Jair Bolsonaro.
Bolsonaro is a long-time ally of Musk, and his government granted Musk the best to operate Starlink in Brazil and awarded Musk a medal in recognition of his services to the country. Bolsonaro's right-wing supporters have develop into visible fans of the tech billionaire.
De Moraes' critics see him as a censor who oversteps his role, while supporters applaud his court's efforts to curb harmful misinformation on the Brazilian web.
Earlier this yr, on April 7, Judge de Moraes opened an investigation against Musk and X Corp. for alleged obstruction of justice.
Although Musk had announced that he would defy the Brazilian court's orders to limit or block some popular accounts on X, on April 15, the social network's lawyers declared before Brazil's Supreme Court that they’d indeed comply with the court's orders.
De Moraes' court can also be investigating Musk and X as a part of a broader investigation into Brazil's so-called digital militias, individuals accused of spreading misinformation online to attack the country's democratic institutions.
X Corp. has been subpoenaed by the U.S. House Judiciary Committee to share details about Brazilian court orders on content moderation. The Republican-controlled committee, which is worried about censorship, released information about Brazilian court orders ordering X to dam or remove around 150 user accounts from its platform lately.
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