Brazil’s telecoms regulator said Friday it was suspending access to Elon Musk’s social media site X in the country to comply with an order from a judge who has been in a months-long dispute with the billionaire investor.
The popular social media platform missed a court deadline on Thursday evening to appoint a legal representative in Brazil, prompting the suspension of the service.
Musk argued that Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes was trying to enforce unjustified censorship, while the judge insisted that social media needed hate speech regulations.
“They are shutting down the #1 source of truth in Brazil,” Musk said in a post on X on Friday.
The judge’s decision could cause X to lose one of its largest and most coveted markets at a time when Musk is grappling with financial troubles over advertising revenue on the platform.
X remained available in Brazil late Friday, although some Brazilians posted on other platforms that their access to X had already been blocked. The country’s three largest telecoms operators said they would begin blocking access from midnight (03:00 GMT Saturday), according to a report by local news agency UOL.
The conflict led to the freezing this week of bank accounts in Brazil of satellite internet provider Starlink. Starlink is a unit of Musk’s SpaceX rocket company.
In his ruling, Moraes ordered the suspension of X, formerly Twitter, in Brazil until it complies with all applicable court orders, including paying a fine of more than $3 million, as well as appointing a local representative, as required by Brazilian law.
Moraes also ordered telecoms regulator Anatel to execute the suspension order.
The agency told Reuters it was taking steps to comply but did not provide a timeline.
To effectively shut down the X domain in Brazil, telecommunications companies will have to stop transmitting network traffic and also prevent users from bypassing it by hiding their location using virtual private networks, or VPNs.
Moraes ordered that people who continued to access website X through a VPN would be fined up to 50,000 reais ($9,000) per day.
Tech giants Apple and Alphabet’s Google were initially ordered to remove X apps from their app stores and implement so-called anti-VPN hurdles that would make it harder for users of Apple’s iOS and Google’s Android operating systems to open X apps on their phones and tablets.
However, Moraes later changed that part of the order, saying it would not be needed.
Apple and Google’s press offices declined to comment.
Couch potatoes and dictators?
Unlike many other countries, Brazilian Supreme Court judges have broad powers to make unilateral decisions. But in the X dispute, Moraes won the support of a majority of the 11-member court, including Supreme Court President Roberto Barroso.
Musk, in addition to owning X and a 40% stake in SpaceX, is also the CEO of electric car giant Tesla.
The dispute over Platform X has its roots in an order by Moraes earlier this year that required the platform to block accounts implicated in investigations into alleged dissemination of distorted information and hate.
Musk has denounced the order as censorship. He responded by closing the company’s offices in Brazil but said the platform was still available in the country.
He said Starlink will continue to provide its service free of charge to Brazilians, including the military, “until this matter is resolved.”
Earlier on Friday, Starlink asked the Supreme Court to stay the freezing of local bank accounts, arguing that it had complied with all court orders. That request was rejected on Friday evening.
Asked for comment, Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva stressed that all companies operating in the country must comply with their legal obligations.
“Just because someone has a lot of money doesn’t mean they can break” the law, the leftist leader told local radio on Friday.
In a tweet on Thursday, Musk mocked the president, calling him Moraes’ “lapdog” and called the judge a “dictator.”
During Friday’s event, Moraes showed no signs of backing down.
“Those who violate democracy and fundamental human rights, whether in person or through social media, must be held accountable,” he said.
© Thomson Reuters 2024
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