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Brazil’s supreme court on Friday ordered a nationwide suspension of Elon Musk’s social network X after the company vowed to defy earlier court orders concerning content moderation and the appointment of a legal representative in Brazil.
The court’s top judge, Alexandre de Moraes, has also ordered daily fines for people or businesses in Brazil that use VPNs or other methods to access X while the site is banned in the country, G1 Globo reported.
The court issued a statement via its government website in Brazil on Friday, saying that it had ordered “the immediate and complete suspension of the operation of X, formerly Twitter, throughout the national territory until the Court’s judicial decisions are complied with and the fines applied are paid.” The statement also said that the order will be valid “until a representative of the company in the country is appointed.”
Brazil’s supreme court had announced on Wednesday that Musk and X Corp. had 24 hours to either appoint a legal representative for their business in Brazil or face a “penalty of suspension of activities” there. The deadline passed on Thursday evening.
X Global Government Affairs said in a statement on Thursday evening that it was expecting the de Moraes shutdown “soon,” because the company “would not comply” with his orders.
Brazil, a major non-NATO ally of the U.S., is now preparing for October municipal elections. Under Brazil’s laws, social media companies operating in the country must employ someone to handle government takedown notices, including about political misinformation and incitements to violence.
X has no such representative in Brazil, and it said earlier this month that it would remove all its employees from the country rather than face any possible arrests over non-compliance with court orders.
A suspension of X in Brazil could cause serious business problems for Musk’s already embattled social network. Brazil has a population of more than 171 million active social media users, according to market research by Oosga.
Musk and his co-investors paid $44 billion to acquire the company then known as Twitter in late 2022. After he implemented sweeping changes to the social network, then reinstated previously banned and suspended accounts, many major advertisers fled or opted to spend far less on campaigns there than they did in prior years.
Most recently, the World Bank stopped paying for campaigns on X after a CBS News investigation found ads from the organization appeared under a racist post from an X account that regularly posted “pro-Nazi and white nationalist content.”
One major X investor, Fidelity, has revealed in financial statements this year that it believes the company’s value had fallen by more than 70% since the buyout.
Musk lashed out at de Moraes in a series of livid posts after the court had frozen the finances of Starlink — the satellite internet service provided by Musk’s aerospace venture, SpaceX — in Brazil. After the court fined X for alleged violations of Brazilian law, it froze Starlink finances in the country to ensure those would be paid.
Starlink has advertised on X under Musk’s management and Musk has encouraged people in Brazil to use Starlink to access the social media platform.
From Wednesday to Friday, ahead of the anticipated suspension of X in Brazil, Musk lashed out at de Moraes via his social media account. On Friday, among other things, the billionaire compared de Moraes to a movie villain, Voldemort, and shared a post describing “the evil tyranny of Moraes.”
Representatives for X, and for the U.S. embassy in Brazil, were not immediately available to comment.
Musk has repeatedly denounced de Moraes’ court orders as censorship. In their Thursday statement, X Global Government Affairs said de Moraes court had taken “illegal actions” against the company.
On Friday after news of the suspension, Musk wrote in a post on X, “The oppressive regime in Brazil is so afraid of the people learning the truth that they will bankrupt anyone who tries.”
This story is developing. Please check back for updates.