The Federal Supreme Court (STF) in Brazil has suspended Elon Musk’s social network after it failed to comply with Minister Alexandre de Moraes’ orders to block accounts of those being investigated by the Brazilian justice system.
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X must pay a final fine before the Elon Musk-owned social network is allowed back online in Brazil, the country’s top justice, Alexandre de Moraes, ruled on Friday.
The platform was suspended nationwide in late August, a decision upheld by a panel of judges on September 2. Earlier this month, X filed documents informing Brazil’s highest court that he is now complying with orders, which he previously defied.
As Brazil’s G1 Globo reported, X must now pay a new fine of 10 million reais (about $2 million) for two additional days of non-compliance with court orders. X’s legal representative in Brazil, Rachel de Oliveira, is also ordered to pay a fine of 300,000 reais.
The case dates back to April, when de Moraes, the minister of Brazil’s Supreme Court, known as the Supremo Tribunal Federal (STF), launched an investigation against Musk and X for alleged obstruction of justice.
Musk had vowed to defy court orders to remove certain accounts in Brazil. He called the court’s actions “censorship” and spoke out against de Moraes online, describing the judge as “criminaland encouraging the US to end foreign aid in Brazil.
In mid-August, Musk closed X’s offices in Brazil. That left his company without a legal representative in the country, a federal requirement for all tech platforms to do business there.
By August 28, the de Moraes court threatened a ban and fines if X did not appoint a legal representative within 24 hours and if he did not comply with requests to remove accounts, the court said he had been involved in conspiracies to abuse or harm federal agents, among others.
Earlier this month, the STF froze the business assets of Musk’s companies, including both X and satellite internet business Starlink, which operate in Brazil. The STF said in court filings that it considered Starlink parent company SpaceX and X to be companies working together as related parties.
Musk wrote a post on X at the time that, “Unless the Brazilian government returns SpaceX and SpaceX’s illegally seized property, we will also seek mutual seizure of government assets.”
On August 29, 2024, in Brazil, the Minister of the Supreme Court, Minister of the STF, Alexandre de Moraes, orders the blocking of the accounts of another company, Elon Musk’s Starlink, to guarantee the payment of fines imposed by the STF due to the lack of representatives of X in Brazil.
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As head of the STF, de Moraes has long supported federal regulations to curb hate speech and misinformation on the internet. His views have drawn backlash from tech companies and far-right officials in the country, along with former president Jair Bolsonaro and his supporters.
Bolsonaro is under investigationsuspected of orchestrating a coup in Brazil after losing the 2022 presidential election to current president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.
While Musk has sought retaliation against de Moraes and Lula, he has cooperated with and praised Bolsonaro for years. Brazil’s former president authorized SpaceX to provide commercial satellite internet services in Brazil in 2022.
Musk bills himself as a defender of free speech, but his track record suggests otherwise. Under his management, X removed content critical of the ruling parties Turkey and India at the insistence of the government. X agreed to more than 80% of government removal requests in 2023 over a comparable period last year, according to an analysis by the tech news site Rest of the World.
X faces increased competition in Brazil from social networking apps such as Meta-owned Threads and Bluesky, which attracted users during its suspension.
Starlink also faces competition in Brazil from eSpace, a Franco-American company that received a license this year from the National Telecommunications Agency (Anatel) to provide satellite Internet services in the country.
Lucas Darien, a lawyer and professor of law at Brazil’s Facex University Center, told CNBC that the STF’s enforcement actions against X are likely to change how big tech companies view the court.
“There is no change in the law here,” Darien wrote in a message. “But in particular, the big tech companies now know that the laws will apply regardless of the size of a business and the size of its reach in the country.”
Musk and X representatives did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Friday.
Late Thursday, X Global Government Affairs was published the following statement:
“X is committed to protecting freedom of speech within the limits of the law, and we recognize and respect the sovereignty of the countries in which we operate. We believe that the Brazilian people’s access to X is essential to a thriving democracy and will continue to defend freedom of expression and due process of law through legal proceedings”.
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