Following the expiration of a deadline set by the court for the company to designate a legal representative in Brazil, a Brazilian Supreme Court justice ordered on Friday the “immediate suspension” of social media platform X in the nation.
The action is the most recent development in a long-running dispute between Elon Musk and Brazilian Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes, which also resulted in the freezing of Starlink’s Brazilian bank accounts.
In the ruling, de Moraes ruled that X must remain out of the nation until all relevant court orders are fulfilled, which include paying fines totalling 18.5 million reais ($3.28 million) and appointing a legal representative in Brazil.
“A Brazilian judge orders X to be suspended “immediately.””
De Moraes gave the telecoms regulator Anatel instructions to carry out the suspension order and to provide the court with confirmation that it had done so in a day.
De Moraes threatened to fine people or businesses who attempted to maintain access to the social network through the use of virtual private networks (VPNs) in an effort to discourage their use. The fine could be as high as 50,000 reais ($8,900) per day.X announced late on Thursday that it anticipated a shutdown order from the Supreme Court justice “soon,” following the expiration of a deadline set by the court for the company to designate a Brazilian legal representative.
De Moraes gave X the order to ban some accounts earlier this year that were connected to investigations into purported digital militias that disseminated hate and false information.
Musk shut down the platform’s Brazilian offices in retaliation, calling the directive censorship. At the time, X—formerly known as Twitter—stated that its services would remain accessible in Brazil.
The Starlink satellite internet company, which Musk owns 40% of, had its local bank accounts blocked by Brazil’s Supreme Court amid the underlying dispute over X. As a result, the company asked the court to postpone the decision on Friday.
[ AlJazeera]
