Brasilia:
A Supreme Court judge on Friday ordered the suspension of Elon Musk's social network X in Brazil after the billionaire failed to comply with an order to appoint a new legal representative for the company.
Musk has been locked in a months-long dispute with the judge, Alexandre de Moraes, who is leading a battle against misinformation in South America's largest nation.
Moraes ordered the “immediate, complete and comprehensive suspension of the operation of 'X Brasil Internet LTDA' in the national territory.”
He ordered the National Telecommunications Agency (Anatel) to “adopt all necessary measures to implement” the order within 24 hours.
It also called on Google, Apple and internet service providers to “introduce technological barriers capable of preventing the use of application X” and access to the website.
The social media platform formally known as Twitter has more than 22 million users in Brazil.
Musk shut down X's business operations in Brazil earlier this month, alleging that Moraes had threatened the company's previous legal representative with arrest to force compliance with “censorship orders.”
On Wednesday, Moraes told Musk to “appoint the company’s new legal representative in Brazil within 24 hours” or face suspension.
The South African-born Tesla boss posted tweets calling Moraes an “evil dictator masquerading as a judge” and accusing him of “trying to destroy democracy in Brazil.”
“We hope that Judge Alexandre de Moraes will soon order the closure of X in Brazil, simply because we will not comply with his illegal orders to censor his political opponents,” X said in a statement shortly after the 24-hour deadline passed.
– Who does Musk think he is? –
The confrontation with Musk began when Moraes ordered the suspension of several X accounts belonging to supporters of Brazil's far-right former president Jair Bolsonaro, who tried to discredit the voting system in the 2022 elections, which he lost.
Brazilian authorities are investigating whether Bolsonaro planned a coup attempt to prevent current President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva from taking office in January 2023.
Among the internet users blocked by Moraes are figures such as far-right former congressman Daniel Silveira, who was sentenced to nine years in prison in 2022 on charges of leading a movement to overthrow the Supreme Court.
In April, Moraes ordered an investigation into Musk, accusing him of reactivating some of the banned accounts on the network formerly known as Twitter.
Musk and other critics accuse Moraes of stifling free speech.
“Any citizen from anywhere in the world who has investments in Brazil is subject to the Brazilian Constitution and laws,” Lula told a local radio station on Friday.
“Who does (Musk) think he is?”
– Starlink's finances are frozen –
On Thursday, Musk's satellite internet operator Starlink said it had received an order from Moraes that “freezes Starlink's finances and prevents it from conducting financial transactions” in the country.
Starlink, which operates in Brazil, particularly in the Amazon, alleged that the order “is based on an unfounded determination that Starlink should be liable for fines imposed – unconstitutionally – against X.”
The company said in X that it intended to “address the matter legally.”
Musk is also the subject of a separate judicial investigation into an alleged scheme in which public money was used to orchestrate disinformation campaigns in favor of Bolsonaro and his associates.
The proliferation and amplification of misinformation and conspiracy theories on social media has sparked a debate about the need to moderate content and find a balance between exposing falsehoods and resorting to censorship or limiting freedom of expression.
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