Brazilian Judge Orders Suspension Of X; Social Media Platform Responds

On Friday, Brazil’s Federal Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes ordered that social media platform X, formerly Twitter, be suspended in the country. The order comes after X did not appoint a new legal representative, which is mandatory in Brazil.

In response to the order, X Global Government Affairs issued the following statement:

Soon, we expect Judge Alexandre de Moraes will order X to be shut down in Brazil – simply because we would not comply with his illegal orders to censor his political opponents. These enemies include a duly elected Senator and a 16-year-old girl, among others.

When we attempted to defend ourselves in court, Judge de Moraes threatened our Brazilian legal representative with imprisonment. Even after she resigned, he froze all of her bank accounts. Our challenges against his manifestly illegal actions were either dismissed or ignored. Judge de Moraes’ colleagues on the Supreme Court are either unwilling or unable to stand up to him.

We are absolutely not insisting that other countries have the same free speech laws as the United States. The fundamental issue at stake here is that Judge de Moraes demands we break Brazil’s own laws. We simply won’t do that.

In the days to come, we will publish all of Judge de Moraes’ illegal demands and all related court filings in the interest of transparency.

Unlike other social media and technology platforms, we will not comply in secret with illegal orders.

To our users in Brazil and around the world, X remains committed to protecting your freedom of speech.

The order also makes clear that anyone in Brazil who attempts to access X via other means, such as a VPN, will face daily fines of nearly $9,000.

De Moraes and X have been at odds since the company refused to limit accounts that were alleged to be spreading misinformation.

In April, following apparent orders to censor certain X accounts, the company posted a statement noting that they were not provided with reasons why the accounts had to be censored, and they were not allowed to say which accounts were affected or which court or judge had made the ruling.

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“We believe that such orders are not in accordance with the Marco Civil da Internet or the Brazilian Federal Constitution, and we challenge the orders legally where possible,” the statement concluded. “The people of Brazil, regardless of their political beliefs, are entitled to freedom of speech, due process, and transparency from their own authorities.”

X CTO and Executive Chairman Elon Musk shortly after stated that the accounts were no longer restricted. He also posted on X that the platform would reveal what had been demanded of them by the judge, and said that the judge “brazenly and repeatedly betrayed the constitution and people of Brazil,” adding that “he should resign or be impeached.”

Musk later named Judge de Moraes, calling his order “draconian,” among other statements. In return, de Moraes said he would investigate Musk himself, accusing him of “flagrant conduct of obstruction of Brazilian justice, incitement of crime,” and “the public threat of disobedience of court orders …”