An ongoing feud between a Brazil Supreme Court justice and Elon Musk has left social media platform X on the brink of being blocked in the country, as President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva demanded that the billionaire comply with local laws.
X was still working normally in Brazil on Friday morning, but the platform said on Thursday that it expected Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes to order a shutdown “soon” after a court-imposed deadline expired for the company to identify a legal representative in Brazil.
“Each and every citizen from any part of the world that has an investment in Brazil is subject to the Brazilian Constitution and Brazilian laws,” Lula told a local radio station.
“Just because a guy has a lot of money doesn’t mean he can disrespect [the law].”
Musk on Thursday called the leftist leader Moraes’s “lapdog” in an X post that also called the judge a “dictator.”
The judge, in a separate event on Friday, reiterated his view that social media needs regulation to contain “hate speech.” He did not provide any details about when he might issue an order blocking X.
“Those who violate democracy, who violate fundamental human rights, whether in person or through social media, must be held accountable,” Moraes said.
Under Brazilian laws governing the internet, social media platforms must have a representative based in the country. To shut down X’s operations in Brazil, Moraes would have to order telecommunication companies to stop facilitating traffic to and from the platform.
Users, however, would still be able to access it using VPNs.
The social media giant has been without a legal representative in Brazil since Aug. 17, when the media platform said it was closing its operations “effective immediately” due to what it called “censorship orders” by Moraes.
Fake news, broken laws and allegations of censorship
The origins of the feud trace back to last spring, when Moraes ordered X to block certain accounts as he investigated so-called digital militias that have been accused of spreading fake news and hate messages during the government of far-right former president Jair Bolsonaro.
After Musk challenged the order and said he would reactivate accounts on X that the judge had ordered blocked, Moraes opened an inquiry into Musk’s businesses in April.
X representatives eventually reversed course and told the Supreme Court the platform would obey the rulings. In April, however, Moraes asked X to explain why it had not fully complied.
In response, X lawyers cited “operational faults” that had allowed users ordered blocked to stay active on the platform.
Things came to a head a couple of weeks ago, when Musk announced the closure of the company’s operations in Brazil, claiming that Moraes had secretly threatened one of the company’s legal representatives in Brazil with arrest if it did not comply with legal orders to take down some content from its platform.Â
Now, with no legal representative to fulfil the legal requirement, the future of X in Brazil is unclear. The social media platform is widely used in Brazil and is an important means of communication in particular for politicians.
Starlink bank accounts blocked
Amid the underlying feud over X, the court also blocked the local bank accounts of Musk’s Starlink satellite internet firm, which a source told Reuters was a response to the lack of legal representatives in Brazil for the social media platform.Â
In a series of Thursday night comments on X, Musk lashed out at Moraes and decried the ruling to block Starlink as illegal, claiming it “improperly” punishes shareholders and ordinary Brazilians.
Musk also announced that Starlink-parent SpaceX will provide free internet service to Brazilian users “until this matter is resolved.”
The cumulative digital and legal disputes could cause X to lose one of its largest and most-coveted markets at a time when Musk has struggled with advertising revenue for the platform.
Reactions to the feud between Moraes and Musk are divided. Some X users shared Musk’s criticism of the judge’s decisions, saying he was undermining freedom of speech in Brazil. Others agree with the judge’s view that Musk should not be above Brazilian law.
