In a significant development, Brazil has imposed a ban on X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter, after the company failed to meet a critical deadline set by a Supreme Court judge to appoint a new legal representative in the country.
This decision, ordered by Justice Alexandre de Moraes, mandates the “immediate and complete suspension” of the platform until it complies with all court directives and settles existing fines.
The conflict dates back to April, when Justice de Moraes ordered the suspension of numerous X accounts that were allegedly involved in disseminating disinformation.
Many of these accounts were believed to be supporters of Brazil’s former right-wing president, Jair Bolsonaro.
The judge emphasized that if these accounts were reactivated, the company’s legal representatives would face accountability.
Reacting to the ban, X owner, Elon Musk, expressed his discontent, stating, “Free speech is the bedrock of democracy and an unelected pseudo-judge in Brazil is destroying it for political purposes.”
With approximately 20 million users, X is a significant platform in Brazil, where its sudden closure has led to reports of inaccessibility across the country as of Saturday morning.
The platform’s office in Brazil had already shut down earlier in the month, citing threats of arrest against its representative if she failed to comply with what the company described as “censorship” and illegal orders under Brazilian law.
Justice de Moraes, who has gained a reputation for his actions to restrict social media in Brazil, ordered that companies like Apple and Google must remove X from their app stores within five days and block its usage on iOS and Android systems.
He warned that individuals or businesses attempting to bypass the ban using VPNs or other means could face fines amounting to R$50,000, £6,700.
This latest action is part of a broader investigation by Justice de Moraes into the activities of Bolsonaro and his supporters, including their alleged involvement in an attempted coup on January 8 of the previous year.
The tension between X and the Brazilian judiciary has escalated to the point where the bank accounts of Musk’s satellite internet company, Starlink, have also been frozen in the country.
Starlink responded with a post on X, asserting that the “order is based on an unfounded determination that Starlink should be responsible for the fines levied – unconstitutionally – against X.”
In a prior post, X had stated its refusal to comply with the judge’s demands, asserting that the judge was overstepping Brazilian law.
“Soon, we expect Judge Alexandre de Moraes will order X to be shut down in Brazil – simply because we would not comply with his illegal orders to censor his political opponents,” the post read. “The fundamental issue at stake here is that Judge de Moraes demands we break Brazil’s own laws. We simply won’t do that.”
The Brazilian government has had a history of clashing with social media companies over content regulation.
In 2023, Telegram faced a temporary ban for its refusal to block certain profiles, and Meta’s messaging service WhatsApp encountered similar bans in 2015 and 2016 due to non-compliance with police data requests.
Justice Moraes’s decision to target X follows a series of escalating actions against tech platforms, underscoring the ongoing battle between Brazil’s judiciary and social media giants over the control of online discourse and political influence in the country.
