Starlink, the company owned by billionaire Elon Musk, said on Sunday that it will not comply with orders to suspend the social network X service in Brazil, also owned by the South African, until the blocking of its accounts is lifted.
The information was confirmed by the president of the National Telecommunications Agency (Anatel), Carlos Baigorri, the regulatory entity in charge of notifying the more than 20,000 operators in Brazil of the order to suspend X in the South American country, according to the news portal G1.
The accounts of Starlink, a satellite internet service company with more than 215,000 active lines in Brazil, were blocked by Supreme Court Judge Alexandre De Moraes to ensure payment of fines imposed on X.
The story goes back several months, after the judge ordered X to eliminate a series of profiles linked to the far right led by former President Jair Bolsonaro, investigated in other cases for conspiring to stage a coup against the current president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.
Musk refused to do so, accusing De Moraes of acting without apparent motive and in a secretive manner.
In mid-August, the South African tycoon closed X’s offices in Brazil to “protect his employees,” who he said were threatened with imprisonment by the judge.
Without a legal representative for X in Brazil, the judge decided to block Starlink’s accounts, which are also owned by Musk, as a way of ensuring payment of the fines imposed on X.
According to Anatel’s president, Starlink’s refusal has already been notified to Judge De Moraes.
Since early Saturday morning, customers of the country’s main operators began reporting that the social network had been blocked or that they were having problems accessing it.
According to the Anatel executive, by this Sunday, most operators had already blocked access to X.
#Starlink #refuses #suspend #social #network #Brazil #Diario #Página
