Brazilian judge orders Elon Musk’s X suspension

SAO PAULO (AP) — A Brazilian Supreme Court judge on Friday ordered the suspension of social media giant Elon Musk’s X in Brazil after the tech billionaire refused to provide the name of his legal representative in the country, according to a copy of his decision.

This move further exacerbates the ongoing months a feud between two men on freedom of speech, far-right stories and disinformation.

Judge Alexandre de Moraes warned Musk on Wednesday evening that X could be blocked in Brazil if he fails to comply with an order to appoint a representative, setting a 24-hour deadline. The company has not had a representative in the country since the beginning of this month.

“Elon Musk has shown complete disrespect 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.

The judge said the platform would remain suspended until it complied with his orders, and also imposed a daily fine of 50,000 reais ($8,900) on individuals and companies using a VPN to access it.

In a later ruling, it reversed its initial decision to set a five-day deadline for internet service providers themselves — not just the telecoms regulator — to block access to X, as well as its order for app stores to remove virtual private networks, or VPNs.

Brazil’s telecoms regulator Anatel has 24 hours to comply. Regulatory chairman Carlos Baigorri told GloboNews that the country’s largest service providers would respond quickly, but added that smaller ones could take longer to suspend X from their services.

The full bench of Brazil’s Supreme Court is expected to rule on the case, but no date has been set.

Brazil is an important market for X, which is struggling loss of advertisers since Musk bought the former Twitter in 2022. Market research group Emarketer says some 40 million Brazilians, or roughly a fifth of the population, use X at least once a month.

X posted on its official Global Government Affairs website Thursday evening that it expected de Moraes to shut down X “simply because we will not follow his illegal orders to censor political opponents.”

“When we tried to defend ourselves in court, Judge de Moraes threatened our Brazilian legal representative with imprisonment. Even after her resignation, he froze all of her bank accounts,” the company wrote. “Our allegations of his clearly illegal actions have been dismissed or ignored. Judge de Moraes’ colleagues on the Supreme Court are either unwilling or unable to stand up to him.”

X fell out with de Moraes over his unwillingness to comply with user-blocking orders.

The accounts the platform previously closed on Brazilian orders include lawmakers affiliated with former President Jair Bolsonaro’s far-right party and activists accused of undermining Brazilian democracy. In April, X’s lawyers sent a document to the Supreme Court saying they had suspended or blocked 226 users since 2019.

In his decision Friday, de Moraes cited Musk’s statements as evidence that X’s conduct “clearly seeks to further encourage and remove from jurisdictional control extremist, hate speech, and anti-democratic statements.”

Musk, a self-proclaimed “free speech absolutist,” has repeatedly said the judge’s actions amounted to censorship, an argument that has resonated with the Brazilian political right. He has frequently insulted de Moraes on his platform, referring to him as a dictator and a tyrant.

De Moraes’ defense team said his actions against X were lawful, supported by a majority of the court, and served to protect democracy at a time when it is under threat. He wrote Friday that his ruling was based on a Brazilian law requiring internet companies to have representation in the country so they can be notified of relevant court rulings and take necessary actions — including removing illegal content posted by users and an anticipated influx of disinformation during October’s municipal elections.

The impending economic shutdown is nothing new in Brazil.

Lone Brazilian judges shut down WhatsApp Meta, the country’s most popular messaging app, multiple times in 2015 and 2016 over the company’s refusal to comply with police requests for user data. In 2022, de Moraes threatened to shut down messaging app Telegram nationwide, saying it had repeatedly ignored Brazilian authorities’ requests to block profiles and share information. He ordered Telegram to appoint a local representative; the company ultimately complied and remained online.

X and its previous incarnation, Twitter, have been banned in several countries — mostly authoritarian regimes like Russia, China, Iran, Myanmar, North Korea, Venezuela, and Turkmenistan. Other countries like PakistanTurkey and Egypt have also temporarily suspended X, usually to quell dissent and unrest. Twitter was blocked in Egypt following the Arab Spring uprisings, which some called the “Twitter revolution,” but has since been restored.

Earlier Friday, a search on X showed hundreds of Brazilian users asking about VPNs that could potentially allow them to continue using the platform by making it appear as if they were logging in from outside the country. It was not immediately clear how Brazilian authorities would police the practice and issue the fines cited by de Moraes.

“It’s an unusual measure, but its main purpose is to ensure that a court order to suspend a platform is actually effective,” Filipe Medon, a digital law expert and professor at the Getulio Vargas Foundation law school at the University of Rio de Janeiro, told The Associated Press. “In general, there are no provisions in Brazilian law that prevent users from using VPNs, because they are not the ones subject to blocking and suspension orders, but rather the companies.”

Still, Mariana de Souza Alves Lima, known by her nickname MariMoon, showed her 1.4 million followers on X where she plans to go by posting a screenshot of rival social network BlueSky.

X said it planned to publish what it called de Moraes’ “illegal demands” and related court documents “in the interests of transparency.”

Also on Thursday evening, Starlink, Musk’s satellite internet provider, reported on X that de Moraes had frozen the company’s finances this week, preventing it from making any transactions in the country where it has more than 250,000 customers.

“This ruling is based on an unfounded finding that Starlink should be liable for the fines imposed — unconstitutionally — on X. It was issued in secret and without providing Starlink with the due process of law guaranteed by the Brazilian Constitution. We intend to resolve this matter legally,” Starlink said in a statement. A law firm representing Starlink told the AP that the company has appealed the ruling but would not comment on the matter.

Another Brazilian Supreme Court judge, Cristiano Zanin, rejected Starlink’s appeal to unfreeze the company’s bank accounts.

Musk responded to those sharing reports of the freeze by adding insults directed at de Moraes. “This guy @Alexandre is a blatant criminal of the worst kind, impersonating a judge,” he wrote.

Musk later wrote on X that SpaceX, which operates Starlink, would provide free internet access in Brazil “until this matter is resolved” because “we can’t get paid, but we also don’t want to cut off anyone’s access.”

In his decision, de Moraes said he ordered the Starlink assets to be frozen because X did not have sufficient funds in its accounts to cover the mounting fines, and argued that both companies belong to the same economic group.

Luca Belli, coordinator of the Getulio Vargas Foundation’s Center for Technology and Society, said that while ordering the suspension of X came after receiving warnings and fines and was therefore appropriate, taking action against Starlink seems “highly questionable.”

“Yes, of course, they have the same owner, Elon Musk, but it is discretionary to treat Starlink as part of the same economic group as Twitter (X). They have no relationship, no integration,” Belli said.

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Ortutay reported from San Francisco and Biller from Rio. AP writer Mauricio Savarese contributed from Sao Paulo.