Musk’s X Braces to Be Blocked in Brazil as Deadline Passes

Elon Musk speaks at an AI conference in Beverly Hills, California, on May 6, 2024 . Photo by Apu Gomes/Getty Images

The social media platform X said it expects to be blocked in Brazil after failing to meet a Supreme Court judges’ deadline to name a new legal representative for the company.

Earlier this month, X owner shut down operations in Brazil, saying that Brazilian authorities had threatened the company’s legal representative with imprisonment for failing to comply with what X described as “censorship orders.”

Despite the shutdown, the platform remained accessible to Brazilian users.

On the evening of Aug. 28, Justice Alexandre de Moraes issued a court order on X, giving Musk just 24 hours to appoint a new legal representative for X Brasil in response to a petition filed against the company, warning that failure to comply would result in the platform’s suspension.

Not Demanding US-Style Free Speech Laws

Authorities in the county have previously ordered telecommunications providers to block access to certain websites or face daily fines.

X’s Global Government Affairs account posted on Friday that soon, it expects de Moraes will order X to be shut down in Brazil.

“When we attempted to defend ourselves in court, Judge de Moraes threatened our Brazilian legal representative with imprisonment. Even after she resigned, he froze all of her bank accounts. Our challenges against his manifestly illegal actions were either dismissed or ignored. Judge de Moraes’ colleagues on the Supreme Court are either unwilling or unable to stand up to him,” claimed X.

The company said it was “absolutely not insisting that other countries have the same free speech laws as the United States.”

“The fundamental issue at stake here is that Judge de Moraes demands we break Brazil’s own laws. We simply won’t do that,” it added.

X said that it will “publish all of Judge de Moraes’ illegal demands and all related court filings in the interest of transparency.”

Brazilian Supreme Court judge Alexandre de Moraes is pictured at the Supreme Court in Brasilia, Brazil, on April 4, 2018. Victoria Silva/AFP via Getty Images

While Musk accuses Brazil of censorship, Brazilian authorities insist that X is breaking the country’s internet laws.

Earlier this year, de Moraes ordered X to block certain accounts, as he investigates so-called digital militias accused of spreading fake news and hate messages during the government of former President Jair Bolsonaro.

X owner Musk was included as part of the criminal inquiry into people who allegedly spread false information about Brazil’s election and justice system.

Starlink Finances Frozen

On Wednesday, Musk posted that he had received an order from de Moraes that froze finances from his satellite internet constellation company Starlink, a subsidiary of the American aerospace company SpaceX.

The order prevents Starlink, which has than a quarter million customers in Brazil, from conducting financial transactions in that country.

X is not the first social media company to come under pressure from authorities in Brazil. Brazil has blocked social media platforms before after orders from judges.

Last year, a federal judge in Brazil ordered a temporary suspension of messaging app Telegram, citing the social media platform’s alleged failure to provide all information Federal Police requested on neo-Nazi chat groups. Local carriers complied with the ruling to block.

In 2016 a Brazilian court issued a nationwide ban on the messaging app WhatsApp, which had over 100 million users, for 72 hours.

Owner Meta had failed to provide encrypted information requested in a police investigation, the fourth block ordered against WhatsApp in Brazil since February 2015.

At the time, the court ruled that providers that do not cut off access to WhatsApp be fined the equivalent of $15,300 a day until they comply.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.