Supreme Court Judge Suspends Elon Musk’s X App in Brazil; ISPs and App Stores Have 5 Days to Remove It

Brazilian Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes on Friday ordered the suspension of Elon Musk’s X rights in Brazil after the billionaire owner of the social media platform formerly known as Twitter refused to provide the name of his legal representative in the country.

Musk called him an “evil dictator” in a post on X.

The two cases have been ongoing for months, according to multiple news reports. De Moraes warned the Tesla founder on Wednesday that X could be blocked after the platform’s representative in the country resigned earlier this month.

Brazilian law requires internet companies to have representation in the country so they can be notified of any legal decisions or regulations and take necessary actions, AP reported. The judge specified the removal of illegal content posted by users and the expected influx of disinformation during October’s municipal elections. He gave X 24 hours to comply, but he did not.

“Elon Musk has shown a complete lack of respect for Brazil’s sovereignty, and in particular for its judiciary, by presenting himself as a truly supranational entity, immune to the laws of any country,” de Moraes wrote in his decision, a copy of which can be found in a copy of the decision.

It said X would remain suspended until it complied, and gave internet service providers and app stores five days to block access to the platform. It also ordered them to remove virtual private networks, or VPNs — which can make it appear that the platform is being accessed from another country — and set a $8,900 fine for individuals or companies that use VPNs to access X.

X has previously blocked the accounts of lawmakers linked to former right-wing Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro and activists trying to undermine democracy

Last night, Global Government Affairs published a statement in English and Portuguese announcing that de Moraes intends to shut down the site “simply because we will not follow his unlawful orders to censor political opponents.”

“When we tried to defend ourselves in court, Judge de Moraes threatened our Brazilian legal representative with imprisonment,” X said. “Even after she resigned, he froze all her bank accounts. Our allegations about his clearly illegal actions were dismissed or ignored. Judge de Moraes’ colleagues in the Supreme Court are either unwilling or unable to oppose him.”

“In the coming days, we will publish all of Judge de Moraes’ illegal demands and all related court documents in the interest of transparency. Unlike other social media and technology platforms, we will not secretly comply with illegal orders.”

According to press reports, De Moraes’ decision stated that X “clearly intends to continue to encourage and attempt to remove extremist, hate speech and anti-democratic posts from jurisdictional control.”