A Brazilian Supreme Court judge ordered this Friday the “immediate” suspension of the social network X in the country, after the tycoon Elon Musk failed to comply with the order to appoint, within 24 hours, a legal representative for the platform in Brazil.
Judge Alexandre de Moraes, who wrote the ruling, ordered the National Telecommunications Agency (Anatel, the regulatory body) to “immediately adopt all necessary measures” to implement the decision “throughout the national territory.”
The sentence is framed within an investigation into the dissemination of fake news which includes the South African businessman on suspicion of having committed crimes of obstruction of justice, criminal organization and incitement to crime.
De Moraes said that he made this decision due to X’s “non-compliance with court orders” and “attempt to not comply with the Brazilian legal system” with the intention of “establishing an environment of total impunity and lawlessness.”
In this regard, he ordered the “immediate” suspension until “all court orders are complied with” and the multi-million dollar fines imposed on X are paid.
In the opinion of the magistrate, the platform is also being “instrumentalized” by “extremist groups” through the “massive dissemination of Nazi, fascist, anti-democratic and hate speeches” on the eve of municipal elections, which will be held in October in Brazil.
The fight
This whole mess began months ago, after the judge ordered the removal of a series of profiles for allegedly misinforming, and Musk refused to do so, accusing the judge of acting without apparent motive and in a secretive manner.
Some of these profiles belong to bloggers and spokesmen of the far right led by the former president. Jair Bolsonaro (2019-2022), also investigated for spreading fake news, attack democratic institutions and conspire to carry out a coup d’état.
More recently, on August 17, X announced that it was closing its office in Brazil to, according to the platform, “protect” its employees in the face of De Moraes’ “threats” to imprison them.
De Moraes responded by seizing the bank accounts of Musk’s Starlink, a satellite internet service provider with 215,000 active lines in Brazil, as a way of ensuring payment of the fines imposed on X.
On Wednesday, he forced Musk to appoint a legal representative in Brazil within 24 hours, under penalty of suspension from X, which ended up happening on Friday.
Musk has always responded with fierce criticism of De Moraes, as well as Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.
“This guy is a criminal of the worst kind, who pretends to be a judge. He is the evil dictator of Brazil and Lula is his lapdog“The owner of Tesla and Space X responded in a series of messages in which he also compared the judge to the villains of the Harry Potter and Star Wars sagas.
Lula da Silva did not stay out of the fight and also attacked the billionaire. “Any citizen from anywhere in the world who has investments in Brazil is subject to the Brazilian Constitution and laws,” President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva told MaisPB radio on Friday. “Who does (Musk) think he is?” he added.
Brazil is one of the countries in the world with the most active X users with about 22 million.
This is not the first time that the Brazilian justice system has ordered the suspension of a social network. This has already happened with YouTube (2007), WhatsApp (2015 and 2016) and Telegram (2023) for lack of cooperation in various judicial investigations.
Judge De Moraes’ announcement on Wednesday caused a stir in Brazil. Following the court order, the hashtag in Portuguese “O TWITTER MORREU” (“Twitter died”) went viral and President Lula da Silva posted a message on his profile on that platform with the addresses of his accounts on other social networks.