A block on X in Brazil took effect yesterday after a Brazilian Supreme Court judge ordered suspension of the social media site.
Brazilian Supreme Court Judge Alexandre de Moraes on Friday ordered the suspension of the platform following a months-long standoff with the US company over alleged disinformation in South America’s largest nation.
Moraes handed down the ruling after X did not comply with an order to name a new legal representative for the company.
Photo: Reuters
Access to X early yesterday was no longer possible for some users in Brazil, who were presented with a message asking them to reload the browser without being able to log in successfully.
X owner Elon Musk said that Moraes was an “evil dictator cosplaying as a judge” and accused him of “trying to destroy democracy in Brazil.”
“Free speech is the bedrock of democracy and an unelected pseudo-judge in Brazil is destroying it for political purposes,” Musk wrote on X.
Moraes ordered the “immediate, complete and comprehensive suspension of the operation of” X in the country, telling the national communications agency to take “all necessary measures” to implement the order within 24 hours.
He threatened a fine of 50,000 reais (US$8,900) to anyone who used “technological subterfuges” to get around the block, such as a virtual provate network.
The judge also demanded that Google, Apple and Internet providers “introduce technological obstacles capable of preventing the use of the X application” and access to the Web site — although he later walked back that order.
The social media platform had more than 22 million users in Brazil prior to the suspension.
Musk shut X’s business operations in Brazil earlier this month, saying that Moraes had threatened the company’s previous legal representative with arrest to force compliance with “censorship orders.”
On Wednesday, Moraes told Musk he had 24 hours to find a new representative or he would face suspension.
Shortly after the deadline passed, X said in a statement that it expected Moraes to shut it down “simply because we would not comply with his illegal orders to censor his political opponents.”
On Thursday, Musk’s satellite Internet operator, Starlink, said that it had received an order from Moraes that froze its accounts and prevented it from conducting financial transactions in Brazil.
Starlink alleged that the order “is based on an unfounded determination that Starlink should be responsible for the fines levied — unconstitutionally — against X.”
Starlink said on X that it intended “to address the matter legally.”
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