‘No local official’: Brazil bans X

Sao Paulo, August 31

Brazil started blocking Elon Musk’s social media platform X on Saturday, making it largely inaccessible on both web and mobile phones after the company refused to comply with a judge’s order.

FIRM failed to follow court order

• X had missed a deadline imposed by Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes to name a legal representative in Brazil, triggering the suspension.
• It marks an escalation in the monthslong feud between Musk and de Moraes over free speech, far-right accounts and misinformation.

X had missed a deadline imposed by Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes to name a legal representative in Brazil, triggering the suspension. It marks an escalation in the monthslong feud between Musk and de Moraes over free speech, far-right accounts and misinformation.

To block X, Brazil’s telecommunications regulator, Anatel, told internet service providers to suspend users’ access to the social media platform. As of Saturday after midnight local time, major operators had begun doing so.

De Moraes had warned Musk on Wednesday night that X could be blocked in Brazil if he failed to comply with his order to name a representative and established a 24-hour deadline. The company has not had a representative in the country since earlier this month.

“Elon Musk showed his total disrespect for Brazilian sovereignty and, in particular, for the judiciary, setting himself up as a true supranational entity and immune to the laws of each country,” de Moraes wrote in his decision on Friday.

The justice said the platform would stay suspended until it complied with his orders, and also set a daily fine of 50,000 reais ($8,900) for people or companies using VPNs to access it.

In a later ruling, he backtracked on his initial decision to establish a five-day deadline for internet service providers themselve, and not just the telecommunications regulator, to block access to X as well as his directive for app stores to remove virtual private networks, or VPNs.

“This is a sad day for X users around the world, especially those in Brazil, who are being denied access to our platform. I wish it did not have to come to this – it breaks my heart,” X’s CEO Linda Yaccarino said on Friday, adding that Brazil was failing to uphold its constitution’s pledge to forbid censorship.