Engaged in a standoff with Elon Musk, the Brazilian Supreme Court carried out its threats to suspend the social network X, owned by the American billionaire, this Saturday, August 31. From dawn, access to the former Twitter, which has 22 million users in the country, began to be blocked, with some encountering an error message asking them to refresh their browser when they enter the portal, without ever managing to connect. According to the local press, the shutdown of X has begun at some Internet service providers and should be completely completed during the day.
Following legal violations by the platform, Alexandre de Moraes, a judge at the Supreme Federal Court, had ordered its suspension within 24 hours on Friday if it did not appoint a legal representative in the country. After the social network rejected the ultimatum, the judge decided on the “immediate, complete and integral suspension of the operation of ‘X Brasil Internet LTDA'”, and ordered the National Telecommunications Agency (Anatel) to “adopt all necessary measures” for it to come into effect within the day. Shortly after, Anatel indicated that it was “implementing” this decision.
The judge also ordered tech giants Google and Apple, as well as internet service providers, to “introduce technological barriers capable of preventing the use” of X.
“Who does he think he is?”
It is “a dramatic escalation in a months-long dispute with platform owner Elon Musk over the limits of free speech,” analyzes the American daily Washington Post. This joust between Alexandre de Moraes, a leading figure in the fight against disinformation in Brazil, and the American billionaire comes just over a month before municipal elections that will allow us to measure the balance of power between the camp of left-wing President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and the right, which readily makes Elon Musk its champion. Judge Moraes denounced X’s “attempt” to escape “the Brazilian legal order and judiciary, in order to establish a climate of total impunity and anarchy on Brazilian social networks, particularly during the 2024 municipal elections.”
According to Alexandre de Moraes, there is an imminent danger of X being exploited by “extremist groups and digital militias on social networks, with the massive dissemination of Nazi, racist, fascist, hateful, anti-democratic speeches”, reports the Brazilian media. The Globe.
Elon Musk, for his part, castigated the Supreme Court’s decision. “Freedom of expression is the foundation of democracy and, in Brazil, an unelected pseudo-judge is destroying it because of political motivations,” he thundered. “Who does he think he is?” responded President Lula, referring to the American billionaire. “Any citizen from any part of the world who has investments in Brazil is subject to the Brazilian Constitution and laws,” he said.
Other Musk Investigations
The suspension must remain in effect until the platform complies, pays the fines imposed on it and appoints a legal representative. Judge Moraes also recently blocked the accounts of Starlink, a satellite internet service provider owned by Elon Musk, to recover the amount of fines not paid by X. Anyone who tries to circumvent the blocking of the social network by “technological subterfuges”, for example by using a virtual private network (VPN), is now exposed in Brazil to a fine of 50,000 reais (around 8,000 euros) per day.
On August 17, Elon Musk announced the closure of X’s offices in Brazil, citing the actions of Judge Moraes, while maintaining the service available there. The high magistrate opened an investigation into the billionaire in April, accusing him of having reactivated accounts suspended by order of the Brazilian courts. X had admitted that users had managed to circumvent the restrictions. In recent years, the judge has ordered the blocking of the accounts of influential figures in Brazil’s ultra-conservative movements for having disseminated “fake news”.
This is particularly true since the attempts by supporters of the former far-right president Jair Bolsonaro (2019-2022) to discredit the electronic voting system in the election won by Lula in 2022. Elon Musk is also the subject of an investigation in Brazil in the case of “digital militias”, suspected of having used public money to orchestrate disinformation campaigns in favor of Jair Bolsonaro and his close associates.