Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes has been looking into the spread of misinformation during former President Jair Bolsonaro’s government. Now, a Brazilian Supreme Court justice has ordered social media platform X to be suspended in Brazil after Elon Musk refused to appoint a legal representative for the company.
According to an August 30th report from the Associated Press, Justice Alexandre de Moraes decided to shut down X’s operations in Brazil because Musk didn’t appoint a legal representative by the August 29th deadline. X’s Global Government Affairs team said they “would not comply with [Moraes’] illegal orders to censor his political opponents.”
It’s not clear what X’s next steps will be for its Brazilian users. Musk has posted several times, calling Justice Moraes “evil” and a “dictator” for what he claims is “illegal political censorship.” Meanwhile, Moraes has been investigating X for allowing and spreading misinformation linked to former President Jair Bolsonaro.
“When we tried to defend ourselves in court, Judge de Moraes threatened to jail our Brazilian legal representative. Even after she quit, he froze all her bank accounts,” X wrote. “Our attempts to challenge his clearly illegal actions were either dismissed or ignored. The other Supreme Court judges seem either unwilling or unable to stand up to him.”
The judge’s order on Friday is based on a Brazilian law that requires foreign companies to have a representative in Brazil. However, Musk has clashed with de Moraes before, even insulting him publicly on X.
A big source of tension between them came when de Moraes ordered Musk to shut down X accounts linked to allies of former President Jair Bolsonaro’s right-wing party and those accused of spreading false information. Musk responded by calling the orders censorship.
Meanwhile, Musk’s company Starlink announced on Thursday that de Moraes also froze its finances in Brazil, saying it was because X didn’t seem to have enough money to pay the fines imposed on it.
Editor: Lydicius
