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Brazil’s Supreme Court on Friday ordered the nationwide suspension of Elon Musk’s social network X after the company said it would not comply with previous court orders regarding content moderation and the appointment of legal representatives in Brazil.
The court’s top judge, Alexandre de Moraes, ordered daily fines to be imposed on individuals and companies who use virtual private networks (VPNs) or other methods to access X despite the site being banned in Brazil. G1 Globo Reported.
court A statement was issued The Brazilian government announced on its website on Friday that it had ordered “the immediate and total suspension of X’s (formerly Twitter) operations throughout the country until the court’s decision is complied with and the imposed fine is paid.” The statement also said the order will remain in effect “until a representative for the company in the country has been appointed.”
Brazil’s Supreme Court said on Wednesday it had given Musk and X 24 hours to choose between appointing a legal representative for their Brazilian operations or facing “penalties of suspension” in the country. The deadline passed on Thursday evening.
X’s Global Government Relations Division It said in a statement The company said late Thursday that it expected the plant closures to happen “soon” because it was “not complying” with Mr. de Moraes’ orders.
Brazil, a major non-NATO ally of the United States, is currently preparing for municipal elections in October, and under Brazilian law social media companies operating in the country must employ staff to handle government takedown notices, including those related to political misinformation and incitement to violence.
Company X has no such representative in Brazil and announced earlier this month that it was removing all of its employees from the country to avoid possible arrest for failing to comply with a court order.
The suspension of X in Brazil could create business problems for Musk’s already struggling company, which has a population of more than 171 million. According to the market, the number of active social media users is Research by Oosga.
Musk bought Twitter for $44 billion in late 2022. He implemented sweeping reforms and reinstated previously banned and suspended accounts, causing many major advertisers to pull back or cut spending on ad campaigns.
of The World Bank has stopped It funded X’s campaign after a CBS News investigation found that the organization’s ads were running under racist posts from the X account, which regularly posts “pro-Nazi and white supremacist content.”
Musk slammed de Moraes in a series of posts after a Brazilian court froze funding for Starlink, the satellite internet service offered by Musk’s SpaceX. Starlink advertises on X under Musk’s control, and Musk has encouraged Brazilians to use Starlink to access social media platforms.
On Friday, Musk likened de Moraes to a movie villain. Voldemort And “wicked Tyranny Moraes’.”
Representatives for X Company and the U.S. Embassy in Brazil declined to immediately comment.
Musk has repeatedly criticized De Moraes’ court order as censorship, and X said in a statement on Thursday that De Moraes’ court order had acted “unlawfully” against the company.
On Friday, after news of the outage broke, Musk said on X that “Brazil’s repressive regime is so afraid of its people knowing the truth that they will bankrupt anyone who tries to find out the truth.”
Brazil’s leading national news agency G1 Globo reported that the Supreme Court issued the order on Friday to the country’s telecommunications company Anatel.
Anatel has called on carriers, including Starlink, to block the use of X in Brazil.
