On Saturday, X, a media platform, announced that it would cease operations in Brazil “effective immediately” due to “censorship orders” issued by Brazilian judge Alexandre de Moraes
X, owned by billionaire Elon Musk, alleges that Moraes covertly threatened one of the company’s legal representatives in Brazil with arrest if the company did not comply with orders to remove certain content from its platform.
According to the social media giant, a document purportedly signed by Moraes would result in an arrest warrant and a daily fine of 20,000 reais ($3,653) for X representative Rachel Nova Conceição if the platform failed to adhere to Moraes’ directives. The document was disseminated in the form of images.
“To protect the safety of our staff, we have decided to close our operations in Brazil, effective immediately,” the company stated.
According to Reuters, the Supreme Court of Brazil, where Moraes is a judge, declined to comment on the matter and would not confirm or deny the authenticity of the document shared by X. Brazilian citizens continue to have access to the X service, the platform announced on Saturday.
During his investigation into the so-called “digital militias” accused of spreading false news and hate messages during the administration of far-right former President Jair Bolsonaro, Moraes directed X to ban specific accounts earlier this year. Moraes initiated an inquiry into Musk after he announced that he would reinstate accounts on X that Moraes had previously blocked. Musk has characterized Moraes’ decisions concerning X as “unconstitutional.”
Following Musk’s objections, X representatives changed their stance and informed the Brazilian Supreme Court that the company would adhere to the legal decisions. In April, lawyers for X in Brazil informed the Supreme Court that “operational faults” had allowed users who were ordered to be blocked to remain active on the platform. This followed Moraes’ request for an explanation regarding the alleged failure to comply fully with his decisions.
Musk called Moraes an “utter disgrace to justice” in posts on X on Saturday. It stated that the company could not comply with the judge’s “secret censorship and private information handover demands.”
