Social media platform X (formerly known as Twitter) began experiencing outages across Brazil after the country’s Supreme Court imposed a nationwide block on the platform on Saturday. This drastic measure followed Elon Musk’s refusal to comply with court orders to suspend certain accounts, marking a significant challenge to his vision of transforming X into a digital town square where nearly anything is permitted.
Brazilian Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes instructed the nation’s telecom agency to block access to X due to the company’s lack of a physical presence in Brazil. This directive came after Musk closed X’s Brazilian office in response to Moraes’s threats of arrest for non-compliance with orders to remove accounts allegedly violating Brazilian laws.
X contested the legality of Moraes’s orders and announced plans to publish them. “Free speech is the bedrock of democracy, and an unelected pseudo-judge in Brazil is undermining it for political reasons,” Musk asserted on Friday.
In an unprecedented move, Moraes also announced that anyone in Brazil attempting to access X through a virtual private network (VPN) could face fines of nearly $9,000 per day. Additionally, Moraes froze the assets of SpaceX’s Starlink satellite internet service in Brazil to enforce a $3 million fine against X. Starlink, which has gained significant traction in Brazil with over 250,000 customers, vowed to challenge the order and offer its service for free if necessary.
The ongoing dispute between Musk and Justice Moraes has been contentious. Musk accuses Moraes of illegally censoring conservative viewpoints, while Moraes contends that Musk is obstructing efforts to address issues of disinformation and ensure a cleaner online environment in Brazil.
Moraes described Musk as an “outlaw” aiming to facilitate the spread of misinformation, hate speech and attacks on democratic principles, thereby depriving voters of accurate information and undermining electoral choice.
