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Brazil's Supreme Court on Friday ordered Elon Musk's social network X to be suspended nationwide after the company vowed to defy previous court orders to moderate content and appoint a legal representative in the country.
The court's top judge, Alexandre de Moraes, also ordered daily fines for people or companies in Brazil that use virtual private networks (VPNs) or other methods to access the X site while it is blocked in the country, G1 Globo reported.
The court issued a statement on its Brazilian government website on Friday, saying it had ordered “the immediate and complete suspension of the operations of X, formerly known as Twitter, throughout the national territory until the court’s judicial rulings are complied with and the applicable fines are paid.” The statement also said the order would be in effect “until a representative of the company is appointed in the country.”
Hours later, the court issued a second order suspending some of the measures contained in its first 51-page order against X. Initially, de Moraes gave companies like Apple and Google five days to stop offering X downloads in their app stores, and to stop making VPN apps available for access to X. The second order waived that deadline and postponed implementation of those measures until further notice, giving X time to pay the fines and have legal representation in place.
Brazil’s Supreme Court said Wednesday that Musk and X had 24 hours to appoint a legal representative for their businesses there or face a nationwide “suspension of activities.” The deadline passed Thursday evening.
X's global government affairs unit said in a statement late Thursday that it expects de Moraes to be shut down “soon” because the company “will not comply” with his orders.
Brazil, a major non-NATO ally of the United States, is now preparing for municipal elections in October. Under Brazilian law, social media companies operating in the country must hire someone to handle government takedown notices, including those related to political misinformation and incitement to violence.
But X has no such representative in Brazil, and earlier this month said it would remove all of its employees from the country rather than face potential arrests for failing to comply with court orders.
The suspension of X in Brazil could cause business problems for Musk’s already struggling company. Brazil has more than 171 million active social media users, according to market research firm Oosga.
Musk led the $44 billion acquisition of Twitter in late 2022. He implemented sweeping changes and reinstated previously banned and suspended accounts, prompting many major advertisers to flee or cut spending on ad campaigns.
The World Bank has stopped paying for campaigns on X after a CBS News investigation found that the organization's ads appeared under a racist post from an X account that regularly posts “pro-Nazi and white nationalist content.”
Musk attacked de Moraes in a series of posts after a court froze the assets of Starlink, the satellite internet service offered by Musk’s SpaceX, in Brazil. Starlink has been announced on X under Musk’s management, and Musk has encouraged people in Brazil to use Starlink to access the social media platform.
The De Moraes court had fined X for alleged violations of Brazilian law and frozen Starlink's assets in the country to ensure those fines were paid.
Critics of De Moraes say his court orders against X go too far. His court has a history of suspending social media apps until they comply with the country’s regulations. Meta-owned WhatsApp and Telegram were suspended in Brazil but have since been reactivated, for example.
On Friday, Musk compared Moraes to the film's villainous character Voldemort, posting a post describing Moraes' “evil tyranny.”
Representatives for X and the U.S. Embassy in Brazil could not immediately be reached for comment.
Musk has repeatedly denounced the de Moraes court orders as censorship. In its statement on Thursday, X said the de Moraes court had taken “illegal action” against the company.
Following news of the project's suspension on Friday, Musk said of X: “The oppressive regime in Brazil is so afraid of people learning the truth that they will bankrupt anyone who tries.”
