Elon Musk announced on Saturday that social media platform X will shut down its operations in Brazil “with immediate effect” due to what he called “censorship orders” from Brazilian judge Alexandre de Moraes.
X claims Moraes secretly threatened one of his legal representatives in the South American country with arrest if he did not comply with legal orders to remove some content from his platform. Brazil’s Supreme Court, where Moraes sits, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
At the request of “Justice” @Alexander In Brazil, that would require us to (secretly) break Brazilian, Argentine, American and international laws, and we have 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
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At the request of “Justice” @Alexander In Brazil, that would require us to (secretly) break Brazilian, Argentine, American and international laws, and we have 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 threatened our legal representative in Brazil with arrest if we do not comply with his censorship orders. He did so through a secret order that we share here to expose his actions.
Although our numerous appeals to the Supreme Court were not heard,… image.twitter.com/Pm2ovyydhE
— Global Government Affairs (@GlobalAffairs) August 17, 2024
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Last night, Alexandre de Moraes threatened our legal representative in Brazil with arrest if we do not comply with his censorship orders. He did so through a secret order that we share here to expose his actions.
Although our numerous appeals to the Supreme Court were not heard,… image.twitter.com/Pm2ovyydhE
— Global Government Affairs (@GlobalAffairs) August 17, 2024
The X service will remain available to citizens of Brazil, billionaire Elon Musk’s platform announced on Saturday.
Earlier this year, Moraes ordered X to block certain accounts as it investigated so-called “digital militias” that have been accused of spreading fake news and hate speech during the government of far-right former President Jair Bolsonaro.
Moraes launched an investigation earlier this year against Musk after he said he would reactivate accounts on X that the judge had ordered blocked. Musk has called Moraes’ decisions regarding X “unconstitutional.”
Following Musk’s challenges, X’s representatives changed their stance and told Brazil’s Supreme Court that the social media giant would comply with the legal rulings.
Lawyers representing X in Brazil told the Supreme Court in April that “operational failures” had allowed users who were ordered to be blocked to remain active on the social media platform, after Moraes asked X to explain why it had allegedly failed to fully comply with his decisions.
