Elon Musk announced on Saturday that social media platform X will cease operations in Brazil “with immediate effect” due to so-called “censorship orders” issued by Brazilian judge Alexandre de Moraes.
X claims that Moraes secretly threatened one of his legal representatives in the South American country with arrest if he did not comply with court orders to remove certain content from his platform. Brazil’s Supreme Court, where Moraes sits, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Due to demands of the “justice” @Alexandre in Brazil, which would require us to (secretly) break Brazilian, Argentine, American and international law, 𝕏 has no choice but to close our local offices in Brazil.
He is an absolute disgrace to the justice system. https://t.co/yAvX1TpuRp
– Elon Musk (@elonmusk) 17 August 2024
Last night, Alexandre de Moraes threatened our legal representative in Brazil with arrest if we did not comply with his censorship orders, in a secret order that we are publishing here to expose his actions.
Although our numerous appeals to the Supreme Court were unsuccessful, … pic.twitter.com/Pm2ovyydhE
— Global Government Affairs (@GlobalAffairs) 17 August 2024
The X service will continue to be available to the Brazilian population, billionaire Elon Musk’s platform announced on Saturday.
Earlier this year, Moraes ordered X to block certain accounts while he investigated so-called “digital militias” accused of spreading fake news and hate speech during the government of far-right former President Jair Bolsonaro.
Moraes launched an investigation into Musk earlier this year after Musk announced he would reinstate accounts on X that had been suspended by a judge. Musk called Moraes’ decisions regarding X “unconstitutional.”
Following Musk’s objections, X’s representatives changed course and informed Brazil’s Supreme Court that the social media giant would comply with the legal decisions.
Lawyers representing X in Brazil told the Supreme Court in April that “operational errors” had allowed the banned users to remain active on the social media platform, after Moraes asked X to explain why the company had allegedly not fully complied with its decisions.
