Brazil’s Supreme Court on Tuesday (October 8) revoked a ban against X (formerly Twitter) after the Elon Musk-owned company agreed to comply with the order. This comes more than a month after the X service was suspended in Brazil following a Supreme Court order on August 30.
In his order, Judge Alexandre de Moraes said that X’s Approved for “immediate return to Japan.” The development comes after months of feuding between Mr. Musk and Mr. Moraes.
Brazilian communications watchdog Anatel has been told to restart services in the country within 24 hours, the BBC said. X has more than 20 million users in Brazil, making it the company’s fifth-largest market in the world after Japan, India, Indonesia, and the United Kingdom.
The relationship between Mr. Musk and the judge
The order banning X from entering Brazil was issued after the Supreme Court passed a 24-hour deadline on August 29 for X to appoint a representative in Brazil. This came weeks after X claimed that Judge Alexandre de Moraes had threatened to arrest his former legal representative. If the platform fails to comply with orders to block some accounts. The representative subsequently resigned.
Earlier this year, Judge Moraes ordered X to block accounts that allegedly spread disinformation. This has been a long-standing issue in Brazil.
However, on April 7, Mr. Musk called for Judge Moraes to be impeached, complaining that X’s Global Government Affairs office was being forced to block “certain popular Brazilian accounts” for unknown reasons. Since then, he has targeted the judge numerous times, calling him the “dictator of Brazil.”
On August 30, the GGA account posted a message saying, “We will not comply with the judge’s (Judge Moraes) illegal orders to censor political opponents.In order to ensure transparency, all of Judge de Moraes’ illegal requests and related courts will not be followed. We will make all documents submitted to the public public.” .
Musk has described himself as a “free speech absolutist” and argued that government orders to block accounts violate people’s right to free speech. However, X has responded to several government requests in the past, such as in the case of India. Musk was also accused of hypocrisy and silencing his critics when several journalists’ X accounts were suspended in January.
Judge Alexandre de Moraes said on April 7 that Mr. Musk was waging a “campaign of disinformation.” “Brazil’s flagrant act of obstruction of justice, incitement of crime, public threat to disobey court orders, and lack of further cooperation from the platform are… “This is a fact that disrespects Brazil’s sovereignty.”
Who is Judge Alexandre de Moraes?
Judge Moraes oversaw the case against Brazil’s former right-wing president Jair Bolsonaro (2019-2022) over the Jan. 8, 2023, riot in Brasilia. A week after Socialist President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva was sworn in for the 2022 election, Bolsonaro’s supporters invaded and attacked government buildings. Musk is a great supporter of Bolsonaro, calling him a “legend of true freedom.”
Many right-wing Brazilians see Mr. de Moraes as a biased judge. In 2022, he ordered a temporary ban on the messaging app Telegram for failing to respond to an investigation into a neo-Nazi chat group. However, a federal court later lifted the restrictions, saying the ban was “not reasonable” for other users’ freedom of communication, DW reported.
The judge’s recent order has come under wider scrutiny. For example, it imposed fines of 50,000 reais ($8,900) per day on individuals and companies that use virtual private networks or VPNs to access X. Judge de Moraes also fined Musk $3 million and ordered a court freeze, according to the New York Times. assets of Starlink, Mr. Musk’s satellite internet service; In response, Musk told Brazilian telecommunications agencies that Starlink would not block access to X.
The ban on X comes after the French government arrested Telegram CEO Pavel Durov for crimes including child pornography on the app. Telegram said it was “unreasonable” to hold Mr Durov accountable and was causing tensions between the government and tech giants over speech restrictions.
President da Silva’s government supports the judge. Attorney General Jorge Mesias previously said in a post to X: “We cannot live in a society where billionaires residing abroad control social networks, violate the rule of law, disobey court orders, or are threatened by our authorities.” ”
(This is an updated version of the commentary published on September 3rd)