Musk called Moraes a “gross disgrace to justice” in a post on X and said the company could not agree to the judge’s “secret censorship and demands to hand over private information.” File | Photo credit: Reuters
Media platform X on Saturday said it will shut down its operations in Brazil “with immediate effect”, after it said it would shut down its operations in Brazil “with immediate effect”. “Censorship order” by Brazilian judge Alexandre de Moraes,
Company X, owned by billionaire Elon Musk, claims that Moraes secretly threatened a legal representative of the company in the South American country that he would be arrested if he did not comply with legal orders to remove certain content from his platform.
The social media giant published photos of a document allegedly signed by Moraes, which states that a daily fine of 20,000 reais ($3,653) and an arrest order would be imposed against X representative Rachel Nova Conceição if the platform does not fully comply with Moraes’ orders.
“In order to protect our employees, we have decided to shut down our operations in Brazil with immediate effect,” X said.
Brazil’s Supreme Court, where Moraes serves, told Reuters it would not comment on the matter and would neither confirm nor deny the authenticity of the document shared by X.
The platform said on Saturday that the X service will remain available to people in Brazil.
Earlier this year, Moraes ordered X to block some accounts as he investigated so-called “digital militias” accused of spreading fake news and hate messages during the government of right-wing former President Jair Bolsonaro.
Moraes launched an investigation into the billionaire earlier this year after Musk said he would reactivate accounts on X that a judge had ordered blocked. Musk has called Moraes’ decisions regarding X “unconstitutional.”
Following Musk’s challenges, X representatives changed their stance and told Brazil’s Supreme Court that the social media giant would comply with legal rulings.
In April, lawyers representing X in Brazil told the Supreme Court that due to “operational errors,” users it had ordered blocked remained active on the social media platform, while Moraes asked X why it had allegedly not fully complied with his decisions.
Musk called Moraes a “gross disgrace to justice” in a post on X on Saturday and said the company could not agree to the judge’s “secret censorship and demands to hand over private information.”