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.Brazilian Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes ordered the country's telecommunications regulator to suspend users' access to X (formerly Twitter) on Friday after its owner, Elon Musk, refused to suspend certain accounts.
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.In his ruling, de Moraes said Elon Musk's refusal to comply with the court's order "showed his total disrespect for Brazilian sovereignty." This comes after Musk missed a deadline to name a legal representative after the closure of X's local office in mid-August.
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.De Moraes also said that X will remain suspended until it complies with his orders, and anyone found accessing X via virtual private networks (VPNs) may face daily fines of 50K reais ($8.9K).
Unelected authorities in Brazil have censored and repressed anyone opposing 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 against free speech in what was once a democratic country — and certainly the most significant so far.
Social media companies must have a legal representative in Brazil to handle government takedown notices, so this ban is only natural after removing all its employees from the country. This decision has nothing to do with free speech, but rather with national sovereignty. X is merely a coup machine serving US interests in the Global South.