Rio de Janeiro: A Brazilian Supreme Court panel on Monday unanimously upheld the decision of one of its judges, Alexandre de Moraes, to suspend tech billionaire Elon Musk's social media platform X nationwide, according to the court's website. The development capped off a months-long feud between Musk and de Moraes over censorship, freedom of speech and hate messages.
The panel that voted in a virtual session was comprised of five of the full bench's 11 justices, including Moraes, who suspended the platform last week for refusing to name a local legal representative, as required by law. It will stay suspended until it complies with his orders and pays outstanding fines that as of last week exceeded $3 million, according to his decision.
The platform has clashed with Moraes over its reluctance to block users and has alleged that Moraes wants an in-country legal representative so that Brazilian authorities can exert leverage over the company by having someone to arrest. Moraes also set a daily fine of 50,000 reais ($8,900) for people or companies using virtual private networks, or VPNs, to access X. In an interview to CNN, Brazilian President Lula da Silva said he was "satisfied" with Moraes' decision to shut down X and that it gave an important signal that the world is not obliged to put up with Musk's far-right ideology just because he is rich.
Feud between Elon Musk and Moraes
Justice Moraes and Musk have been in a public feud for months after X failed to comply with legal orders to block certain accounts accused of spreading 'fake news' and hate messages. X claimed Moraes threatened to arrest one of the company's legal representatives in Brazil if it did not comply with his orders. In response, Musk's platform shut all of its Brazil offices due to what it called "censorship" by the judge.
Moraes in April included Musk in an investigation over the dissemination of fake news and opened a separate probe into the executive for alleged obstruction. Musk, who calls himself a "free speech absolutist" has repeatedly claimed such actions are imposing censorship, an argument echoed by the right-wing in Brazil. The feud has led to the freezing of the bank accounts of Musk's satellite internet provider Starlink in Brazil.
Musk has repeatedly insulted the justice on the social media platform, calling him names such as "dictator", "fraud" and "Voldemort" - the latter being in mocking reference to the resemblance of Moraes with the Harry Potter character. "Dictator de Voldemort is absolutely trying to destroy democracy in Brazil," he said on Friday.
People migrating to alternate platforms
Following the suspension of X services, many users in Brazil said they felt disconnected from the world and began migrating en masse to alternative platforms, like Bluesky and Threads. Meanwhile, Musk's satellite internet provider Starlink has refused to enforce the decision unless it has its bank accounts unfrozen.
That means a shutdown of Starlink is likely, although enforcement will be difficult given the company's satellites aren't inside national territory, said Luca Belli, coordinator of the Technology and Society Center at the Getulio Vargas Foundation. It is popular in Brazil's expansive rural and forested areas.
“Elon Musk showed his total disrespect for Brazilian sovereignty and, in particular, for the judiciary, setting himself up as a true supranational entity and immune to the laws of each country,” Moraes wrote in his decision on Friday. He also said X's conduct “clearly intends to continue to encourage posts with extremism, hate speech and anti-democratic discourse, and to try to withdraw them from jurisdictional control.”
(with agency input)
ALSO READ | EXPLAINED: Why Brazil shut down X platform and what is Elon Musk's feud with top judge?
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