On Friday, a Supreme Court justice in Brazil ordered the suspension of Elon Musk’s social media platform X across the country. This decision came after the tech billionaire failed to appoint a legal representative in Brazil, as reported by The Associated Press.
The ruling intensifies the ongoing dispute between Musk and the Brazilian judiciary over issues related to free speech, far-right accounts, and misinformation.
Justice Alexandre de Moraes had warned Musk on Wednesday evening that X could face a nationwide block if he did not appoint a representative within 24 hours. The company has been without a local representative since earlier this month. De Moraes specified that the platform would remain suspended until it complies with the order.
Brazil is a key market for X, which has faced a decline in advertisers since Musk acquired the platform, formerly known as Twitter, in 2022. According to market research group Emarketer, around 40 million Brazilians, or about one-fifth of the population, use X at least once a month.
Late Thursday, X posted on its official Global Government Affairs page that it anticipated the shutdown, attributing it to de Moraes’s “illegal orders to censor his political opponents.”
“When we attempted to defend ourselves in court, Judge de Moraes threatened our Brazilian legal representative with imprisonment. Even after her resignation, he froze all her bank accounts,” the company stated. “Our challenges against his clearly unlawful actions were either dismissed or ignored. Judge de Moraes’ colleagues on the Supreme Court seem either unwilling or unable to confront him.”
X has had disputes with de Moraes due to its reluctance to comply with orders to block certain users.
The platform has previously deactivated accounts in Brazil on the basis of local directives, including those of lawmakers linked to former President Jair Bolsonaro’s right-wing party and activists accused of undermining Brazilian democracy.
Musk, who describes himself as a “free speech absolutist,” has consistently claimed that the justice’s actions constitute censorship, a view supported by Brazil’s political right. He has frequently criticized de Moraes on his platform, portraying him as a dictator and tyrant.
Supporters of de Moraes argue that his actions against X are legal, have been endorsed by most of the Supreme Court, and are intended to safeguard democracy during a period of peril. The order issued on Friday is based on Brazilian law that mandates foreign companies to have representation in the country to receive notifications of legal proceedings against them.
Given the public nature of the standoff and the requirement to comply with de Moraes’s order, combined with the simplicity of compliance, X could potentially be offline within 12 hours of receiving the instructions, according to Luca Belli, coordinator of the Technology and Society Centre at the Getulio Vargas Foundation in Rio de Janeiro.
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