A judge banned Musk’s X in Brazil
X will shut down Brazilian platforms in protest of Musk’s decision to terminate his public profile in the wake of his decision to close down the Brazilian Senate
X is expected to be shut down in Brazil because we would not comply with his orders to censor his political opponents, according to an account in his global affairs account. A duly elected Senator is one of the enemies.
Musk believed that free speech was the cornerstone of democracy, and that an unelected judge in Brazil was destroying it for political purposes.
Brazil requires major platforms to have a legal representative in the country. It has banned other platforms in the past.
The suspension is imminent. Moraes already froze bank accounts belonging to Starlink, the satellite internet firm that Musk owns a portion of, this week. A statement from Starlink posted to X said that the company has a quarter-million customers in Brazil and that the action was an “unfounded” attempt to hold Starlink responsible for fines levied against X for failing to turn over documents. The company will look for a legal remedy.
Brazil is an important market for X, which has struggled with the loss of advertisers since Musk purchased the former Twitter in 2022. Market research group Emarketer says some 40 million Brazilians, roughly one-fifth of the population, access X at least once per month.
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When we attempted to defend ourselves in court, the Brazilian legal representative was threatened with imprisonment. Even after she resigned, he froze all of her bank accounts,” the company wrote. “Our challenges against his manifestly illegal actions were either dismissed or ignored. The Supreme Court colleagues of De Moraes are either unwilling or unable to stand up to him.
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 Brazilian democracy.
Luca Belli, the technology center’sordinator, said that X could be offline as early as 12 hours after operators receive instructions from de Moraes.
In its statement, X framed the court’s decisions as breaking Brazil’s own laws, alleging they are “illegal” and saying it would publish all related court documents.
On Friday morning, X appeared to still be available in Brazil, with users posting from São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro. Now, though, anyone caught using a VPN to access X will be subject to a fine of 50,000 reais, the equivalent of about $8,900, according to the AP.
This week, billionaire Telegram CEO Pavel Durov was arrested in France and charged with “complicity” in a raft of serious crimes occurring on the app, which has gained a reputation for being lightly moderated over the years. Musk said the arrest was dangerous times and sent shockwaves through the global tech industry.
The AP reported that app stores in Brazil have five days to comply with the ruling. It might take a while to get the internet filters fully implemented in Brazil, because there are so many internet providers in the nation, according to Isik Mater of Netblocks.