Following a prolonged standoff misinformation, Alexandre de Moraes, a Brazilian Supreme Court Judge, imposed an immediate ban on Elon Musk’s social media platform, X (formerly Twitter) in Brazil.  

The justice mandates a “complete and comprehensive suspension” on the operations of X within the country. The court has directed to take ‘all necessary measures’ to enforce the rule.  

Earlier, Musk stated that there are expectations from Brazil court to shut down the services of X in the nation. The situation arose as X was not able to meet the court deadline of providing the name of a legal representative, based in Brazil.   

Elon Musk Vs Brazil Judge 

The dispute first kicked off, over Judge Moraes ordering for the call of suspension of several X accounts, linked to supporters of Jair Bolsonaro (former Brazil’s President). Bolsonaro lost the 2022 elections, where he tried to challenge legitimacy of the elections. The authorities are now investigating whether Bolsonaro tried to orchestrate a coup to prevent Lula da Silva, the current President from taking charge in January 2023.  

Following the matter, Moraes ordered an investigation against Musk, accusing him of reactivating the banned accounts. Reacting to it, X shut down its offices in Brazil, citing ‘censorship’, though it was available for users.  

Moraes stated that actions will be taken against the ones who breach human rights or democracy. The X’s suspension will be withheld, till the platform company meets all court orders, including paying fines of 18.5 million reais ($3.28 million) for dissenting earlier orders. The suspension will remain valid until the appointment of a new legal representative of X.  

Additionally, Moraes also froze the Musk-owned internet satellite company, Starlink’s financial assets. X has over 22 million users in Brazil.  

How Elon Musk reacted? 

Retaliating to the court’s order, Musk through his X handle contended the ban and called Alexandre de Moraes an “evil dictator disguised as a judge”.  

He also blamed him for trying to be destroying democracy in Brazil. 

He wrote on X, “Free speech is the bedrock of democracy and an unelected pseudo-judge in Brazil in destroying it for political purposes.” Adding further he said that they are shutting down the #1 source of reliability and truth in Brazil. 

Fines to Brazilians who attempts to breach the orders 

Moraes is putting measures to prevent people or businesses from breaching the orders by using VPNs (Virtual private networks). He warned that anyone trying to do so will be fined up to $8,900 per day.  

This is not the first time, that a social media platform has been the target by the Brazilian authorities. Last year, Telegram’s services were temporarily blocked over its non-compliance with requests to block specific profiles.  

Meta’s messaging service, WhatsApp also encountered the same issue. The authorities in 2015 and 2016 imposed a temporary ban, for not complying with police requests for user data.