Brazil’s Supreme Court has threatened to suspend the social media platform X if Elon Musk doesn’t appoint a new legal representative of the company in Brazil and settle any outstanding daily fines within 24 hours.
It marks the latest in an ongoing feud between Musk and the court’s judge, Justice Alexandre de Moraes, centering around free speech and alleged disinformation. X announced earlier this month that it would close its operations and fire its staff in Brazil due to what it called “censorship orders” from de Moraes.
De Moraes had ordered the social media company to block several X accounts he said were spreading disinformation.
The latest statement, which was signed by de Moraes, was also shared on the Supreme Court’s official X account, tagging both Musk and X’s Global Government Affairs account.
The statement from the Supreme Court was posted at around 8.30 p.m. local time on Wednesday, giving Musk until Thursday evening local time to respond.
Musk reacted to de Moraes’ announcement, writing on X on Thursday that the judge “has repeatedly broken the laws he has sworn to uphold.”
On August 17, X published a lengthy statement saying it would be forced to close operations and fire staff in Brazil due to de Moraes’ “censorship orders.”
“Despite our numerous appeals to the Supreme Court not being heard, the Brazilian public not being informed about these orders and our Brazilian staff having no responsibility or control over whether content is blocked on our platform, Moraes has chosen to threaten our staff in Brazil rather than respect the law or due process,” the X statement said.
“As a result, to protect the safety of our staff, we have made the decision to close our operation in Brazil, effective immediately. The X service remains available to the people of Brazil. We are deeply saddened that we have been forced to make this decision. The responsibility lies solely with Alexandre de Moraes,” the statement added.
Later on August 17, Musk reiterated the official X statement, saying his company had “no choice” but to close local operations.
“Due to demands by ‘Justice’ Alexandre [de Moraes] in Brazil that would require us to break (in secret) Brazilian, Argentinian, American and international law, X has no choice but to close our local operations in Brazil,” he said in an X post.
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