After the Brazilian Supreme Court upheld the ban on social media platform X, just a few hours later, the country’s telecommunications regulatory agency threatened sanctions against billionaire Elon Musk’s satellite network company, Starlink, for defying the ban.
The public confrontation between Brazilian authorities and Musk escalates, coming just as Brazil prepares for municipal elections in October.
Last Friday, August 30, Brazilian Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes ordered the shutdown of the X platform for failing to appoint a legal representative in Brazil.
On Monday, September 2, the panel of judges at Brazil’s Federal Supreme Court reviewed and upheld Moraes’ decision.
Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva also supported Moraes’ decision to temporarily suspend X’s operations in Brazil.
The National Telecommunications Agency of Brazil (Anatel) instructed internet service providers to block access to social media platform X in compliance with the court order.
However, Starlink company stated on Monday that it refuses to comply with the Brazilian court’s order.
Arthur Coimbra, a commissioner of Anatel, was quoted by Reuters saying that Starlink is the only company that has openly declared its refusal to abide by the court ruling.
Coimbra explained in an interview with CNN Brasil that Anatel is investigating Starlink and other network operators for potential non-compliance with the court’s order. He added that failing to adhere to the court’s decision to block X could lead to a range of sanctions, including fines and revoking business licenses in Brazil.
Anatel’s response to the situation was quoted by Reuters stating that Starlink had previously informed Anatel that it refused to remove X from its services before its Brazilian bank account was unfrozen.
In response to the freezing of Starlink’s account earlier by a judge to pay fines owed by X, Musk stated in a released statement by X that he would seek reciprocal withholding of Brazilian assets without specifying the exact method.
The struggle between Musk and Brazilian authorities dates back to April this year when a representative of X stated that the company was forced to “block certain popular accounts” due to a court ruling.
Shortly after, Musk mentioned that the restrictions had been lifted and encouraged users to download Virtual Private Networks (VPN) to access X to prevent social networks from being banned.
According to Brazilian law, social networks must employ individuals responsible for receiving and reviewing government deletion notices regarding political misinformation. X lacks such employees in Brazil, and the company announced last month that due to ongoing tensions, it would be withdrawing all its staff from Brazil, sparking the latest legal conflict.
In Brazil, the majority of users have already been unable to access X. According to Statista data, Brazil ranks as X’s sixth-largest market globally, with approximately 21.5 million users as of April.