Brazil Supreme Court Lifts Freeze on Starlink, X Bank Accounts After $3.3 Million Payment

Elon Musk, CEO of SpaceX and Tesla and owner of X, attends the Viva Technology conference dedicated to innovation and startups at the Porte de Versailles exhibition center in Paris on June 16, 2023. Gonzalo Fuentes/Reuters

Brazil’s top court has announced it will lift the freeze of the bank accounts of Starlink and X Corp. after the transfer of $3.31 million in fines that were imposed on the Elon Musk-controlled entities.

According to a statement issued by Brazil’s Supreme Court on Sept. 13, Brazil Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes ordered the bank accounts unfrozen because the amount paid to Brazil reached the total that X owed the country in fines.

Justice De Moraes, who at the end of August ordered the suspension of X in Brazil, froze the bank accounts of both X and Starlink to pressure the satellite internet service provider to cover the fines imposed on X, reasoning that Starlink, the parent company of SpaceX, is part of the same Musk-controlled group.

“With the full payment of the amount due, [de Moraes] determined that there was no longer a need to keep the bank accounts blocked and ordered the immediate unblocking of the bank accounts/financial assets, motor vehicles, and real estate of the mentioned companies,” reads a translation of the notice, which was issued in Portuguese.

The fines on X were imposed amid a public feud between Musk and de Moraes, who previously ordered X to block certain user accounts in Brazil that were accused of spreading hate and misinformation. Both Musk and X’s global government affairs team have denounced de Moraes’s orders as unlawful attempts at censorship.

The Brazil Supreme Court’s announcement on Sept. 13 indicates that X was fined for not removing content amid “ongoing investigations” after being ordered by the court to do so, in addition to X having withdrawn its legal representatives in Brazil, “which led to the suspension of the platform’s operations.”

X remains blocked in Brazil.

A spokesperson for X did not respond to a request for comment on the lift of the freeze on the bank accounts.

On Aug. 29, in response to the account freezes, Starlink said it believed de Moraes’s decision violated due process and was unconstitutional.

“It was issued in secret and without affording Starlink any of the due process of law guaranteed by the Constitution of Brazil,” Starlink said in the statement. “We intend to address the matter legally.”

In mid-August, X’s global government affairs account shared a copy of a letter from the Brazil Supreme Court demanding what the team characterized as “censorship of popular Brazilian accounts, including that of a lawmaker and a pastor.”

“We believe the Brazilian people should know what is being asked of us,” the team wrote.

In a follow-up post, the X team said they had received additional demands for “censorship” and for personal account information of users, an order that X said affects not just Brazilians but also residents of the United States and Argentina.

De Moraes has accused Musk of “total disrespect” for the sovereignty of Brazil and for the country’s judiciary for resisting the orders to shut down accounts.

Musk has been highly critical of de Moraes and his decision to block X in Brazil and related actions.

In a recent commentary on the matter, Musk shared a post in which billionaire hedge fund manager Bill Ackman compared de Moraes’s actions to strong-arm tactics in communist-ruled China, warning that this puts Brazil on track to becoming an “uninvestable” market.

“Absolutely,” Musk wrote in his post, agreeing with Ackman’s assessment of the X ban, which the hedge fund manager said was “illegal.”

Amid the feud, De Moraes ordered internet service providers, including Starlink, as well as app stores, to block X from their platforms. After initially signaling its resistance to the order, Starlink eventually said it would comply with the order, though it vowed to pursue “all legal avenues” to allow X to operate in Brazil.