X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter, announced today that it will be shutting down its operations in Brazil, although users in the country will still be able to use the service.
The announcement came amid a legal battle with Brazil’s Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes, who sought to block certain X accounts as part of an investigation into election disinformation and “digital militias.”
According to a post on X’s global government relations account, the company said Moraes “threatened to arrest our legal representative in Brazil if the censorship order was not complied with.”
Last night, Alexandre de Moraes threatened the Brazilian legal representative with arrest if he did not comply with the censorship order. He did this with a secret order, but we are publishing it here to shed light on his actions.
Despite our multiple unsuccessful appeals to the Supreme Court… pic.twitter.com/Pm2ovyydhE
— Global Government Affairs (@GlobalAffairs) August 17, 2024
The company continued, “As a result, we have decided to close our operations in Brazil effective immediately to protect the safety of our employees. X services will remain available to the people of Brazil.”
In a previous post, X listed some of the accounts that were targeted, saying they included “a pastor, a current member of parliament, and the wife of a former member of parliament.”
Earlier this year, Moraes launched a criminal investigation into Elon Musk after X’s owner said he would not comply with a court order and would lift restrictions on certain accounts, before the company reversed course and said it would block the accounts after all.
Supporters of Brazil’s far-right former president, Jair Bolsonaro, have criticized Moraes and called for his impeachment. Bolsonaro lost the 2022 election and Brazil’s highest electoral court has blocked him from running for reelection for eight years, saying he tried to undermine the election through claims of fraud.
Musk, who visited Brazil in 2022 and met with President Bolsonaro, said Moraes “should either resign or be impeached”
In a post today, X said that “our Brazilian staff have no responsibility or control over whether content is blocked on our platform” and that “Brazilians are being forced to choose between democracy and Alexandre de Moraes.”