Musk Row With Brazil Continues, As Supreme Court Threatens To Suspend X

Tom Jowitt,
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Elon Musk

Brazil’s Supreme Court threatens to suspend Elon Musk’s X, amid ongoing row over outstanding fines and alleged ‘censorship’

The ongoing feud between the South American country of Brazil and Elon Musk’s social media platform X (formerly Twitter) continues this week.

Brazil’s Supreme Court has threatened to suspend X if Elon Musk doesn’t appoint a new legal representative of the company in Brazil and settle any outstanding daily fines within 24 hours.

Supreme Court judge Alexandre de Moraes had begun an investigation into Elon Musk’s X in April 2024 for obstruction of justice, after the billionaire said he would reactivate accounts on X that the judge had ordered blocked.

Brazil Supreme Court judge Alexandre de Moraes.
Image credit Alexandre de Moraes

Row background

Judge Moraes had ordered X to block certain accounts that he has accused of spreading disinformation while he carried out an investigation into “digital militias” during the presidency of Jair Bolsonaro.

The X accounts were thought to be linked to extreme-right movements which posted content related to riots on 8 January 2023, when thousands of supporters of former Brazil president Jair Bolsonaro stormed the country’s Congress, Supreme Court and presidential palace in scenes reminiscent of the 6 January 2020 riots in the US capitol.

Musk however said he would lift the restrictions on certain accounts because they were unconstitutional, and Musk called for Justice Alexandre de Moraes to “resign or be impeached”.

It should be noted that Brazil’s former President Jan Bolsonaro has previously spoken in favour of Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump, who is being actively supported by Elon Musk.

Office closure

Judge Moraes said a daily fine of 20,000 reais ($3,653, £2,813) and an arrest warrant would be imposed on X’s legal representative Rachel Nova Conceicao if the platform did not comply with the content takedown orders.

Earlier this month X responded and said it was closing its operations in Brazil “effective immediately” due to “censorship orders” by the judge

“To protect the safety of our staff, we have made the decision to close our operation in Brazil, effective immediately,” X said in a statement.

It is reported that X also fired its staff in Brazil.

Suspending X

Despite this, the social media platform remained operational in Brazil, but that could be about to change after Brazil’s Supreme Court threatened to suspend X on Thursday.

The latest statement, which was signed by Judge Moraes, was also shared on the Supreme Court’s official X account, tagging both Musk and X’s Global Government Affairs account.

Elon Musk and X have until about 8pm local time Thursday (7pm ET or midnight British summer time) to comply with the order.

If they don’t, Twitter will be immediately blocked in the country.

Musk response

Musk reacted to de Moraes’ announcement, tweeting on X on Thursday that the judge “has repeatedly broken the laws he has sworn to uphold.”

And it has been suggested that Judge Moraes could be going after Elon Musk’s other operations as well, after Musk retweeted a post that claimed that Judge Moraes has also blocked the financial accounts of Starlink in Brazil.

“The tyrant, @Alexandre, is dictator of Brazil. Lula is his lapdog,” Musk wrote.

Lula refers to Brazil’s current President, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, who beat Jan Bolsonaro in that country’s election in 2022.