Social network X will close operations in Brazil

Washington. Social media platform X, formerly Twitter, will close its operations in Brazil, its owner Elon Musk announced on Saturday, although the service will continue to be available to Brazilian users.

“Due to demands from ‘Justice’ @Alexandre in Brazil that would require us to (secretly) violate Brazilian, Argentine, US and international laws, X has no choice but to close (its) local operations in Brazil,” Musk posted, referring to Alexandre de Moraes, a judge on Brazil’s Supreme Court.

The group says it was forced to take this decision to “protect the safety” of its local staff.

He said De Moraes had “threatened” his legal representative in Brazil with “arrest” if he failed to comply with what the social network called “censorship” decisions aimed at blocking content.

“The decision to close X’s offices in Brazil was a difficult one,” Musk said. “Had we agreed to Alexandre de Moraes’ secret (illegal) censorship and his demands to transfer private information, we would not have been able to explain our actions without shame.”

Alexandre de Moraes “is a disgrace to justice” and “must go,” he added, referring to a judge whom he had previously described as a “dictator.”

In recent years, De Moraes has ordered the blocking of accounts of influential figures from Brazilian ultraconservative movements, mainly since the attempts by supporters of former President Jair Bolsonaro, an admirer of Musk, to discredit the electronic voting system during the presidential elections won by Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.

In April, X admitted that users of several blocked accounts had managed to bypass the restrictions.

“Despite our numerous unheard appeals to the Supreme Court, a Brazilian public misinformed about these rulings and the fact that our Brazilian staff has no responsibility or control over the content blocked on our platform,” Judge De Moraes “decided to threaten our staff in Brazil instead of respecting the law and its procedures,” the social network said on Saturday.