Brasilia, Aug 30 (EFE).- A Brazilian Supreme Court judge on Friday ordered the “immediate” suspension of the social network X in the country, after tycoon Elon Musk failed to comply with the order to appoint, within 24 hours, a legal representative for the platform in Brazil.
Judge Alexandre de Moraes, who issued the ruling, ordered the National Telecommunications Agency (Anatel, the regulatory body) to “immediately adopt all necessary measures” to implement the decision “throughout the national territory.”
The sentence is part of an investigation into the dissemination of false news in which the South African businessman is suspected of having committed crimes of obstruction of justice, criminal organization and incitement to crime.
De Moraes said that he made this decision due to X’s “non-compliance with court orders” and “attempt to not submit to the Brazilian legal system” with the intention of “establishing an environment of total impunity and lawlessness.”
In this regard, he ordered the “immediate” suspension until “all court orders are complied with” and the multi-million dollar fines imposed on X are paid.
According to the judge, the platform is also being “instrumentalised” by “extremist groups” through the “massive dissemination of Nazi, fascist, anti-democratic and hate speech” on the eve of the municipal elections, which will be held in October.
This whole mess began months ago, after the judge ordered the removal of a series of profiles for allegedly misinforming, and Musk refused to do so, accusing the judge of acting without apparent motive and in a secretive manner.
Some of these profiles belong to bloggers and spokespeople of the far-right group led by former President Jair Bolsonaro (2019-2022), who is also under investigation for spreading fake news, attacking democratic institutions and plotting a coup.
More recently, on August 17, X announced that it was closing its office in Brazil to, according to the platform, “protect” its employees from “threats” by De Moraes to imprison them.
De Moraes responded by seizing the bank accounts of Musk’s Starlink, a satellite internet service provider with 215,000 active lines in Brazil, as a way of ensuring payment of the fines imposed on X.
On Wednesday, he forced Musk to appoint a legal representative in Brazil within 24 hours, or face suspension from X, which ended up happening on Friday.
Musk has consistently responded with fierce criticism of De Moraes, as well as Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.
“This guy is a criminal of the worst kind, who pretends to be a judge (…) He is the dictator of Brazil and Lula is his lapdog,” the owner of Tesla and Space X reacted in a series of messages these days, in which he also compared the judge to the villains of the Harry Potter and Star Wars sagas.
Brazil is one of the countries in the world with the most active X users, with around 20 million.
This is not the first time that the Brazilian justice system has ordered the suspension of a social network. This has already happened with YouTube (2007), WhatsApp (2015 and 2016) and Telegram (2023) for lack of cooperation in various judicial investigations.
.
#Brazils #Supreme #Court #orders #suspension #failing #comply #court #orders
2024-08-31 07:28:45
