Billionaire Elon Musk failed to appoint a new legal representative for the social media platform X Brazil within the designated time, resulting in the Supreme Court of Brazil ordering a complete suspension of the platform’s operations in Brazil.
On Friday (August 30), Brazilian Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes issued the suspension order, leading to tens of millions of X platform users in the country being cut off from the service.
The order requires internet service providers and app stores to block access to the X platform for users within five days, while also announcing a daily fine of $8,900 for Brazilian users who use virtual private networks (VPNs) to evade the ban.
Justice Moraes stated in the ruling that the X platform will remain banned until all court orders are complied with.
Moraes wrote, “Musk completely disrespects Brazil’s sovereignty, especially its judiciary, portraying himself as a super-national entity not bound by the laws of any country.”
The conflict between Musk and Moraes has been ongoing for months. Moraes is investigating “fake news” generated during the tenure of former right-wing President Jair Bolsonaro. As part of his investigation, earlier this year, Moraes had ordered the X platform to block certain accounts.
According to a court document cited by Reuters, Moraes had launched an investigation against Musk in April for allegedly obstructing justice, as Musk’s X platform had defied a court order.
Musk condemned the order as censorship. In response, X platform ceased its operations in Brazil on August 17, but continued its social media services for Brazilian users.
Musk also claimed Moraes threatened to arrest the company’s former legal representative to compel them to enforce “illegal censorship orders.”
In a statement on Thursday (August 29), X platform called Moraes’ order “illegal commands to censor political opponents,” predicting the platform would be banned in Brazil.
X stated in the release, “Soon, we expect Justice Moraes will order the ban of X services in Brazil. The reason is simple, because we do not comply with his illegal commands to censor political opponents. … When we tried to defend ourselves in court, Judge Moraes threatened to imprison our Brazilian legal representative. Even after she resigned, he froze all of her bank accounts.”
“We do not secretly execute illegal commands unlike other social media and tech platforms. For our users in Brazil and around the world, X is always committed to protecting your freedom of speech.”
X also announced plans to disclose all of Justice Moraes’ “illegal demands” and related court documents in the coming days to increase transparency.
Musk has not yet publicly commented on the suspension. X company did not respond to Epoch Times’ request for comment on the suspension.
However, Musk praised journalist Glenn Greenwald’s analysis of the situation in his own post. Greenwald described Moraes’ demands as part of the Brazilian government’s use of online platforms to stifle dissent.
According to market research firm Emarketer, approximately 40 million Brazilians (about one-fifth of the total population) visit the X platform at least once a month.
(Reference: English Epoch Times and Reuters reports)