A Brazilian Supreme Court judge on Friday ordered the “immediate” suspension of social media platform X in the country, after billionaire Elon Musk failed to comply with an order to appoint a legal representative for the platform in Brazil within 24 hours.
Judge Alexandre de Moraes, who wrote 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.
The reason for X’s suspension in Brazil
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 fines imposed on X are paid.
According to the judge, the platform is also being “exploited” 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 all started 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.
Brazil is one of the countries in the world with the most active X users, with around 20 million.
Confrontation between Moraes and Musk
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 accounts of Musk’s Starlink company, which offers satellite internet services and has 215,000 active lines in Brazil, as a way of guaranteeing 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 talks about a “repressive regime” in Brazil
The tycoon Elon Musk said on Friday that the suspension of the social network in Brazil has been ordered by “an unelected pseudo-judge” who is “destroying freedom of expression, a pillar of democracy, for political purposes,” he wrote on his personal account on X.
Yesterday, Musk had already described De Moraes as “an evil dictator disguised as a judge.”
In his messages today, he continued to attack the “repressive regime in Brazil” that “is so afraid of letting the people know the truth that it will break anyone who tries.”
And in another post he noted that “the attacks on free expression this year are unprecedented in the 20th century,” echoing another message that cited measures against X in Brazil, Canada and France.
This is not the first time that the Brazilian courts have 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 several judicial investigations.
Brasilia / EFE
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2024-09-02 03:18:26
