The blocking of social media X (formerly Twitter), owned by billionaire Elon Musk, began early today in Brazil, hours after a Supreme Court judge ordered the platform suspended for legal violations.
Access to X is no longer possible for some users who see a message asking them to refresh their browser when entering the portal, but are unable to log in.
According to local media, the X outage has begun at some internet service providers and is expected to be fully implemented during the day.
A Supreme Court judge yesterday, Friday, after months of “bra de fer”, ordered the suspension of X within 24 hours, infuriating Elon Musk.
“Freedom of expression is the foundation of democracy and, in Brazil, an unelected pseudo-judge is destroying it for political reasons,” he stressed.
It is the latest episode so far in a standoff between Alexander de Moraes, a federal Supreme Court judge and head of an anti-disinformation campaign in Brazil, and the American billionaire.
It comes just over a month before municipal elections that are expected to show the balance of power between the leftist camp of President Luiz Lula da Silva and the right that has happily adopted Elon Musk’s objections.
Judge Moraes had on Wednesday night given the platform 24 hours to appoint a legal representative in the country, threatening otherwise to block it. X has 22 million users in Brazil, according to specialist website DataReportal.
After the social media outlet rejected the ultimatum, the judge ordered the “immediate, complete and total suspension of the operation of ‘X Brasil Internet LTDA'” and ordered the National Telecommunications Agency (Anatel) to take “all necessary measures” in order to to take effect within 24 hours in Latin America’s largest country. Shortly after, Anatel stated that it was “implementing” this decision.
The judge also required tech giants Google and Amazon, as well as internet access providers, to “introduce technological barriers capable of preventing the use of X”.
It threatened fines of 50,000 reais (about 8,000 euros) a day for those who resorted to “technological gimmicks” to circumvent the block, such as using virtual private networks (VPNs).
As a result, the social networking site Bluesky recorded an “influx” of new users in Brazil.
Judge Moraes denounced X’s “attempt” to circumvent “the legal order and judiciary in Brazil in order to establish a state of total impunity and ‘anarchy’ in Brazilian social media, especially during the 2024 municipal elections.”
X’s suspension is expected to remain in place until the platform complies, pays fines imposed on it and appoints a legal representative.
Judge Moraes has also recently blocked the accounts of Starlink, a satellite internet provider owned by Elon Musk, in order to recover the amount of unpaid fines from X.
The billionaire businessman stepped up his verbal attacks on Judge Moraes this week, calling him a “dictator” and accusing him of stifling freedom of expression.
“Who does he think he is?” President Lula reacted yesterday, referring to Elon Musk. “Every citizen, from any part of the world, if they have investments in Brazil are subject to the Brazilian Constitution and laws,” he said.
On August 17, Elon Musk announced that he was closing X’s offices in Brazil, but that the service would remain available to users, citing Moraes’ decisions.
The judge launched an investigation into Musk last April, accusing him of reactivating user accounts blocked by Brazilian court orders. Platform X admitted that users managed to circumvent the bans.
The judge had ordered the closure of the accounts of influential people belonging to ultra-conservative movements, claiming they were peddling false information.
And this especially after the attempts of supporters of the far-right former president Jáich Bolsonaro (2019-2022) to discredit the electronic voting system in the elections won by Lula in 2022.
Elon Musk is also under investigation in Brazil over so-called “digital militias” who allegedly used public money to orchestrate disinformation campaigns in favor of Bolsonaro.
As in other countries, the X is used a lot in Brazil by politicians and journalists and is a privileged field of fierce confrontation between the right and the left.
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