Justice Fighting Musk Orders X Blocked in Brazil

Ruling says platform encourages posts with 'extremism, hate speech and anti-democratic discourse'
By Newser Editors and Wire Services
Posted Aug 30, 2024 5:30 PM CDT
Justice Fighting Musk Orders X Blocked in Brazil
Brazilian Supreme Court Chief Justice Alexandre de Moraes arrives for a court hearing in Brasilia in June 2023.   (AP Photo/Eraldo Peres, File)

A Brazilian Supreme Court justice on Friday ordered the suspension of Elon Musk's social media giant X in Brazil after the tech billionaire refused to name a legal representative in the country, according to a copy of his decision. The move escalates the monthslong feud between the two men over free speech, far-right accounts, and misinformation, the AP reports. Justice Alexandre de Moraes had warned Musk on Wednesday night that X could be blocked in the country if he failed to comply with his order to name a representative, and established a 24-hour deadline. The company hasn't had a representative in the country since earlier this month.

"Elon Musk showed his total disrespect for Brazilian sovereignty and, in particular, for the judiciary, setting himself up as a true supranational entity and immune to the laws of each country," de Moraes wrote in his decision. The justice gave internet service providers and app stores five days to block access to X and said the platform will stay suspended until it complies with his orders. He established the same deadline for app stores to remove virtual private networks, or VPNs, and set a daily fine of about $8,900 for people or companies using them to access X.

Brazil is an important market for X, which had posted on its official Global Government Affairs page Thursday that it expected X to be shut down by de Moraes "simply because we would not comply with his illegal orders to censor his political opponents." X has clashed with de Moraes over its reluctance to comply with orders to block users. Accounts that the platform previously has shut down on Brazilian orders include lawmakers affiliated with former President Jair Bolsonaro's right-wing party and activists accused of undermining democracy. X's lawyers in April sent a document to the Supreme Court in April, saying that since 2019 it had suspended or blocked 226 users. In his decision Friday, de Moraes cited Musk's statements as evidence that X "clearly intends to continue to encourage posts with extremism, hate speech and anti-democratic discourse, and to try to withdraw them from jurisdictional control."

(More X.com stories.)

Get the news faster.
Tap to install our app.
X
Install the Newser News app
in two easy steps:
1. Tap in your navigation bar.
2. Tap to Add to Home Screen.

X