Brazil's Top Court Panel Ratifies Ban on X
A five-judge panel in the Brazilian Supreme Court voted unanimously on Monday to uphold Justice Alexandre de Moraes' order for a nationwide ban on X (formerly Twitter) after its owner, Elon Musk, refused to suspend certain accounts....
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Facts
- A five-judge panel in the Brazilian Supreme Court voted unanimously on Monday to uphold Justice Alexandre de Moraes' order for a nationwide ban on X (formerly Twitter) after its owner, Elon Musk, refused to suspend certain accounts.[1][2][3]
- Access to X has been blocked since Saturday as the deadline to name a legal representative after closing the local office in mid-August was missed. According to the Friday ruling, Musk 'showed his total disrespect for Brazilian sovereignty' by refusing to comply with court orders.[4][3][5]
- De Moraes added in his ruling that X will remain suspended until it complies with his orders and that anyone found accessing X via virtual private networks (VPNs) may face daily fines of 50K reais ($8.9K).[6]
- However, he reversed his initial decision to create a five-day deadline for internet service providers to block access to X and his directive for app stores to remove VPNs.[6]
- On Thursday, de Moraes also froze Starlink's financial accounts — a satellite internet company owned by Musk — and reportedly blocked it from 'conducting financial transactions' in Brazil.[7]
- The feud between de Moraes and Musk began in April after the former ordered dozens of X accounts suspended for allegedly spreading disinformation. On Saturday, X launched the Alexandre Files to shed 'light on the abuses of Brazilian law committed by Alexandre de Moraes.'[8][9]
Sources: [1]Bloomberg, [2]Wsj, [3]New York Times, [4]Guardian, [5]National Review, [6]Associated Press, [7]CNN, [8]BBC News and [9]X.
Narratives
- Right narrative, as provided by Red State and The Gateway Pundit. Unelected authorities in Brazil have censored and repressed anyone opposing leftist leader Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and his allies ever since Jair Bolsonaro was in office. Blocking X nationwide is the latest — and certainly the most significant so far — attack against free speech in what was once a democratic country.
- Left narrative, as provided by NBC and Common Dreams. Social media companies must have a legal representative in Brazil to handle government takedown notices, so this ban is only natural after X removed all its employees from the country. This decision has nothing to do with free speech but everything to do with national sovereignty. Musk's social media platform is merely a coup machine serving US interests in the Global South.
