Musk Attacks Brazilian Supreme Court Judge As X Faces Imminent Ban In Country
ForbesAUG 2024
Brazilian Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes issued a ruling on Friday ordering the country's telecom regulator to block access to the X social media platform nationwide within 24 hours.
This comes as Elon Musk missed a deadline to name a legal representative for X in the country after the closure of its local office in mid-August as de Moraes threatened arrests for not complying with his orders to remove certain X accounts.
De Moraes later backtracked on parts of his ruling, including a directive for app stores to remove virtual private networks (VPNs), but the core of the decision remains unchanged. On Saturday, attempts to access X were met with error messages.De Moraes later backtracked on parts of his ruling, including a directive for app stores to remove virtual private networks (VPNs), but the core of the decision stands and attempts to access X were met with error messages on Saturday.
High courts in Brazil have long censored and repressed anyone opposing the authoritarian leftist leader Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, ever since right-wing Jair Bolsonaro was in office. Blocking X is the latest attack — and certainly the most significant — against free speech in what once was a democratic country.
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