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 stands and attempts to access X were met with error messages on Saturday.
HighUnelected courtsauthorities in Brazil have long censored and repressed anyone opposing the authoritarian leftist leader Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and his allies, ever since right-wing Jair Bolsonaro was in office. Blocking X nationwide is the latest attack — and certainly the most significant — against free speech in what was once was a democratic country — and certainly the most significant so far.
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