X (formerly Twitter) is now banned in Brazil after a feud that began in April between judge Alexandre de Moraes and Elon Musk reached its inevitable conclusion on Friday. Musk stoked the feud with tweets like “Alexandre de Moraes is an evil dictator who disguises himself as a judge” and “This guy @Alexandre is a criminal of the worst kind, who pretends to be a judge.”
As a social media platform, X allows users to post short messages that are seen around the world. Some countries ask Twitter to ban certain topics due to laws or censorship. China, Iran, Myanmar, North Korea, Russia, Turkmenistan, and Venezuela have banned X completely for refusing to cooperate with dictates. It is worth noting that Musk is particularly outspoken as the owner of X and challenges this censorship.
In recent years, more than a hundred right-wing supporters of former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro have been ordered to be censored by left-wing Judge Moraes. After Musk stepped in with comments supporting the right, Judge Moraes began cracking down. He threatened Musk with an investigation accusing him of spreading disinformation and freezing Starlink’s Brazilian financial accounts.
X’s previous representative in Brazil resigned to avoid imprisonment, and X has been operating without a legal representative in Brazil. Judge Moraes used this violation of the law that requires foreign companies to have a legal representative to ban X. Moraes also noted that Musk, through X, “clearly intends to continue to encourage extremist messages, hateful and anti-democratic speech, and to try to shield them from any judicial review.”
App stores, internet service providers and other companies involved in accessing X must block such access within five days. The country’s telecommunications company must block X within 24 hours.
