Elon Musk announced on Saturday that the social media platform “X” will close its operations in Brazil “immediately” due to what he called “censorship orders” issued by Brazilian judge Alexandre de Moraes.
X alleges that Moraes secretly threatened one of its legal representatives in the South American country with arrest if it did not comply with legal orders to remove certain content from its platform. Brazil’s Supreme Court, where Moraes sits, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Due to demands of “justice” @Alexander In Brazil, which would require us to (secretly) violate Brazilian, Argentine, US and international law, 𝕏 has no choice but to close our local operations in Brazil.
It is a complete disgrace to justice. https://t.co/yAvX1TpuRp
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) August 17, 2024
Last night, Alexandre de Moraes, our legal representative in Brazil, threatened us with arrest if we did not comply with his censorship orders. He did so in a confidential order, which we are sharing here to expose his actions.
Although our numerous petitions to the Supreme Court were not heard,… pic.twitter.com/Pm2ovyydhE
— Global Government Affairs (@GlobalAffairs) August 17, 2024
Billionaire Elon Musk’s platform said Saturday that its X service remains available to the Brazilian people.
Earlier this year, Moraes X ordered certain accounts to be blocked, while investigating so-called “digital militias” accused of spreading fake news and hate messages during the government of former far-right President Jair Bolsonaro.
Moraes opened an investigation earlier this year into Musk after he said he would reactivate accounts on X that a judge had ordered banned. Musk called Moraes’s decisions on X “unconstitutional.”
After Musk’s challenges, X representatives backed down and told Brazil’s Supreme Court that the social media giant would comply with the legal rulings.
In April, lawyers representing X in Brazil told the Supreme Court that “operational errors” had allowed users who had been ordered blocked to remain active on the social media platform, after Moraes asked X to explain why it had not fully complied with his orders.
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