On Saturday, media platform X, owned by billionaire Elon Musk, stated that it will shut down its operations in Brazil "effective immediately" in response to "censorship orders" imposed by Brazilian judge Alexandre de Moraes.
Judge Moraes allegedly threatened one of X's legal agents in Brazil, Rachel Nova Conceicao, with arrest if the firm did not comply with court demands to delete particular information from its site. The site uploaded photographs of a document supposedly signed by Moraes 📝, which indicates that a daily punishment of 20,000 reais ($3,653) and an arrest warrant would be enforced against Nova Conceicao if X did not completely comply with the judge's directives.
"To protect the safety of our staff, we have made the decision to close our operation in Brazil, effective immediately," the company stated in a statement. Despite the termination of operations, the X service will still be available to customers in Brazil 🌍.
Brazil's Supreme Court, where Judge Moraes sits, declined to comment on the allegation and did not confirm or reject the legitimacy of the document given by X❓.
Earlier this year, Judge Moraes ordered X to restrict some accounts as part of an inquiry into "digital militias" suspected of disseminating fake news and hate speech during the government of far-right former President Jair Bolsonaro 🇧🇷. Moraes also launched an investigation into Musk earlier this year, when Musk indicated plans to revive accounts on X that the judge had ordered barred. Musk has attacked Moraes' rulings regarding X as "unconstitutional" 📜.
After Musk's objections, X officials first assured Brazil's Supreme Court that they would follow the legal judgments fully. However, they then claimed "operational faults" that allowed individuals who were ordered banned to continue active on the network (🔄). Musk, in tweets on X on Saturday, labeled Judge Moraes an "utter disgrace to justice" and claimed that the business could not accede to the judge's "secret censorship and private information handover demands" (🚫).