A Brazilian Supreme Court panel on Monday has unanimously upheld the decision to suspend tech billionaire Elon Musk’s social media platform X nationwide for failing to comply with the country’s laws.
This development has capped off a months-long showdown between Musk and Justice Alexandre de Moreas over a variety of conflicting problems.
How did the conflict escalate?
The ban on X comes on the back of a long-running feud between Elon Musk and Justice de Moreas over X’s unwillingness to block certain problematic accounts.
In April 2024, the Supreme Court judge ordered dozens of X accounts to be suspended for spreading disinformation, most of which allegedly belonged to supporters of Jair Bolsonaro, the former president of Brazil who is known for his extremist rhetoric and right-wing, nationalist views.
X initially complied with the court-issued blocking orders, taking down the specific accounts. Reportedly, up to $20,000 (Rs 16.7 lakh approx.) would have been imposed on X if it did not comply with the court’s blocking orders.
However, a mere hour later, Musk declared that he had restored the blocked accounts and called for Justice de Moraes to “resign or be impeached”. He has also repeatedly insulted the justice on his social media platform, calling him names such as “fraud”, “dictator” and “Voldemort”.
On August 17th, X claimed that Justice de Moreas had issued a confidential order in which he allegedly threatened X’s legal representative with arrest if the platform did not comply with the April blocking orders.
“As a result, to protect the safety of our staff, we have made the decision to close our operation in Brazil, effective immediately,” X asserted.
Tensions exploded once again on August 29th, with Justice de Moreas giving Elon Musk a 24-hour ultimatum to hire a new legal representative in Brazil or risk suspension. Once the deadline had passed, a nationwide ban was imposed on X. Apple and Google were directed to remove the X app from their respective app stores within 5 days.
What did the court decide?
In addition to banning X, the Supreme Court has also issued an order to freeze the finances of Starlink, the satellite communication services provider owned by Elon Musk’s SpaceX.
Brazilians who continue using X via VPNs will be fined R$50,000 (Rs 7.4 lakh approx.), the ruling added. This has led to several users migrating to other social media platforms.
How will this impact the social media platform?
With the Supreme Court’s decision, Brazil becomes the latest addition to the list of countries that have banned X, which include China, Russia, Iran, Turkmenistan, Myanmar, and North Korea.
X had an estimated 40 million monthly active users in Brazil, which is also home to the fifth largest digital population in the world. The nationwide suspension will most probably impact the platform’s business severely and exacerbate its already-declining advertising revenues.
