Elon Musk’s internet service, Starlink, has announced that it will comply with a Brazil supreme court order to shut down X, but it has vowed to pursue “all legal avenues” to allow the recently banned Musk-owned social media platform to operate in Brazil.
Starlink said it would abide by an order from the Supreme Federal Court of Brazil’s Justice Alexandre de Moraes requiring internet service providers and app stores to block X from their platforms.
“Regardless of the illegal treatment of Starlink in freezing our assets, we are complying with the order to block access to X in Brazil,” Starlink’s statement reads. “We continue to pursue all legal avenues, as are others who agree that @alexandre’s recent orders violate the Brazilian constitution.”
De Moraes froze Starlink’s accounts last week in order to pressure the company to cover fines imposed on X in Brazil, reasoning that both are part of the same Musk-controlled group.
“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.”
The spokesperson said that unless Starlink complies, it will face sanctions, including possibly having its operating license in Brazil revoked.
Artur Coimbra, an Anatel board member, told The Associated Press that if Starlink refuses to abide by the order to block X, authorities could also eventually seize equipment from Starlink’s 23 ground stations in Brazil, where Starlink serves more than 250,000 customers.
Starlink’s announcement that it intends to comply with the X ban is the latest chapter in a long-running dispute between Brazilian officials and Musk, who has refused to comply with court orders to block accounts accused by investigators of spreading hate and misinformation. Both Musk and X’s global government affairs team have denounced these orders as unlawful attempts at censorship.
De Moraes’s order, which requires internet service providers and app stores to block access to X, also announced a daily penalty of $8,900 for users in Brazil who use a virtual private network to evade the ban. In his decision, de Moraes said X will remain blocked until it complies with his orders.
“Elon Musk showed his total disrespect for Brazilian sovereignty and, in particular, for the judiciary, setting himself up as a true supranational entity and immune to the laws of each country,” de Moraes wrote.
Musk, for his part, has been highly critical of de Moraes and his decision to block X in Brazil and related actions.
“Absolutely,” Musk wrote in his post, agreeing with Ackman’s assessment of the X ban, which the hedge fund manager said was “illegal.”
