Brazil’s supreme court has ordered the “immediate and complete suspension” of Elon Musk’s social media platform X – formerly Twitter – throughout the country.
Justice Alexandre de Moraes had warned Musk on Wednesday night that X could be blocked in Brazil – where it is estimated to have some 40 million monthly users – if the tech billionaire failed to comply with his order to name a legal representative in the South American country.
After the 24-hour deadline he gave expired, Justice Moraes put out a new statement on Friday stating that access to the platform would be banned until Musk complies with all court orders and pays outstanding fines amounting to 18.5 million reais (£2.5m).
The judge warned that individuals and companies which seek to use a virtual private networks (VPN) to circumvent the ban will face a daily fine of 50,000 reais (£6,785), “without prejudice to other sanctions in the civil and criminal spheres”.
Justice Moraes also ordered Apple and Google to take steps to block the use of the X on its operating systems, as well as removing it from their app stores. The social media platform is expected to be unavailable in Brazil within the next 24 hours.
The dramatic statement marks an escalation in the long-running battle between Musk and Mr Moraes, which ignited after X failed to comply with legal orders to block certain accounts accused of spreading “fake news” and hate messages.
Those orders arose from an investigation into “digital militias” which supported Brazil’s far-right former president Jair Bolsonaro and his bid to retain power after losing the 2022 election.
X claims the judge threatened to arrest one of the company’s legal representatives in Brazil and froze her bank accounts. Musk, who purports to be a “free speech absolutist”, has since shut down all of his company’s offices in Brazil in response to what he said was the judge’s “censorship”.
Since purchasing Twitter for $44bn in 2022, the SpaceX founder has reinstated the accounts of many individuals and groups previously banned for hate speech and dangerous content, with content moderators among the thousands of contractors he swiftly laid off after taking over the company.
In between promoting Donald Trump’s US presidential bid and sharing far-right misinformation about British politics, Musk has repeatedly used his platform to lash out at Justice Moraes in recent days.
“Alexandre de Moraes is an evil dictator cosplaying as a judge,” Musk wrote in one post on Thursday, saying in another: “He is a disgrace to judges [sic] robes.”
Responding to news of X’s suspension, Musk tweeted: “Free speech is the bedrock of democracy and an unelected pseudo-judge in Brazil is destroying it for political purposes”, later adding: “The oppressive regime in Brazil is so afraid of the people learning the truth that they will bankrupt anyone who tries.”
In a statement issued ahead of the ban, X said it anticipated being shut down “simply because we would not comply with his illegal orders to censor his political opponents”, adding: “These enemies include a duly elected Senator and a 16-year-old girl, among others.
“When we attempted to defend ourselves in court, Judge de Moraes threatened our Brazilian legal representative with imprisonment. Even after she resigned, he froze all of her bank accounts. Our challenges against his manifestly illegal actions were either dismissed or ignored.
“Judge de Moraes’ colleagues on the Supreme Court are either unwilling or unable to stand up to him. We are absolutely not insisting that other countries have the same free speech laws as the United States. The fundamental issue at stake here is that Judge de Moraes demands we break Brazil’s own laws.
“We simply won’t do that. In the days to come, we will publish all of Judge de Moraes’ illegal demands and all related court filings in the interest of transparency … To our users in Brazil and around the world, X remains committed to protecting your freedom of speech.”
X is widely used in Brazil and is an important means of communication, especially for politicians as a means to put out their views and attack their rivals. The country is about to enter the campaign phase for local municipal elections in October that will decide the mayors of 5,568 towns and cities.
Additional reporting by Reuters