A Brazilian Supreme Court judge has ordered the suspension of Elon Musk’s social media giant X after he refused to name a legal representative. It will no longer be accessible in about 12 hours from this order.
Judge Alexandre de Moraes had warned Musk Wednesday night that X could be blocked in Brazil if she did not comply with his order to appoint a representativeand established a period of 24 hours. The company does not have a representative in Brazil since the beginning of the month. De Moraes said that the platform would remain blocked until it met with the legality of having a representative in Brazil.
Brazil is an important market for X, which has struggled with the loss of advertisers since Musk bought the former Twitter in 2022. The market research group Emarketer states that some 40 million Brazilians, approximately a fifth of the population, access X at least once a month.
X had posted on his official Global Government Affairs page late on Thursday that I expected X to be closed by de Moraes“simply because we would not carry out his illegal orders to censor his political opponents.”
“When we try to defend ourselves in court, the judge of Moraes threatened our Brazilian legal representative with imprisonment. Even after he resigned, he froze all of his bank accounts,” the company wrote.Our appeals against their manifestly illegal actions were dismissed or ignored. Judge Moraes’ colleagues on the Supreme Court are unwilling or unable to stand up to him.”
It is not the first time that Brazil requests the closure of accounts
X has confronted de Moraes over his reluctance to comply with user blocking orders. Accounts that the platform has previously closed for Brazilian ordersinclude legislators affiliated with the right-wing party of former president Jair Bolsonaro and activists accused of undermining Brazilian democracy.
Musk, a self-proclaimed “free speech absolutist,” has repeatedly stated that judicial actions amount to censorshipand Brazil’s political right has echoed his argument. He has often insulted De Moraes on his platform, calling him a dictator and tyrant.
De Moraes’ defenders have affirmed that his actions against X have been legalhave had the support of the majority of the members of the court and have served to protect democracy at a time when it is in danger. His Friday order is based on Brazilian law that requires foreign companies to have representation in the country. so that they can be notified when there are legal cases against them.
Given that the operators are aware of the widely publicized standoff and their obligation to comply with an order from de Moraes, as well as the fact that doing so is not complicated, X could be offline as soon as 12 hours after receiving your instructionssaid Luca Belli, coordinator of the Center for Technology and Society at the Getulio Vargas Foundation, a university in Rio de Janeiro.
