According to a message released by the American social media platform X on Saturday (August 17), X will be shutting down its operations in Brazil, but will continue to provide services in the country.
This statement is X’s latest response to the Supreme Court Justice of Brazil, Alexandre de Moraes.
X’s global government affairs department account posted, “Last night, Moraes threatened our legal representative in Brazil, stating that we would be arrested if we did not comply with his censorship order.”
“He issued a secret order, and we are sharing this order here to expose his actions,” the post read.
X’s global government affairs department stated that their multiple appeals to the Brazilian Supreme Court were not heard, and the Brazilian public was not informed of these orders.
“Furthermore, our Brazilian employees do not have the authority to censor or control content on our platform. But Moraes chose to threaten our employees in Brazil instead of respecting the law or due process. Therefore, to protect the safety of our employees, we have decided to close our operations in Brazil with immediate effect,” X’s statement said.
The statement pointed out that X will still provide services to the Brazilian public and expressed regret over the decision to shut down operations.
Bloomberg reported that a spokesperson for the Brazilian Federal Supreme Court declined to comment, and X did not provide a comment.
Moraes is leading the charge against fake news and hate speech in Brazil. Previously, he ordered X to suspend accounts of certain high-profile users in the country, force the deletion of posts, and warned of temporarily shutting down the entire X platform.
Initially, X complied with the judge’s orders, but later CEO Elon Musk publicly stated that he would rather lose all income from Brazil, even if it meant closing offices to unblock these accounts.
Musk revealed that Moraes issued these account suspension orders and that he had instructed the restoration of banned Brazilian X accounts.
“This judge has repeatedly betrayed the provisions of the constitution and the will of the Brazilian people. He should resign or face impeachment,” Musk wrote in April.
In addition to X, in recent years Moraes has also threatened to impose bans and fines on other social media platforms including Facebook and Telegram. The Lula administration recently stated that it aims to make Brazil a global model for combating misinformation.
It is currently unclear the extent of X’s business in Brazil. Data from the research company Sensor Tower shows that as of the first quarter, the platform had approximately 20 million active users in Brazil, a decrease of about 15% from the previous year.
On Saturday, Musk posted, “Moraes’s so-called ‘justice’ in Brazil will require us to secretly violate Brazilian, Argentine, American, and international laws. X has no choice but to close our local operations in Brazil.”