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Elon Musk’s clash with the Brazilian government over moderation of X (formerly Twitter) has resulted in a government ban on the platform
Volatile billionaire Elon Musk’s ongoing clash with the Brazilian government has this week seen his social media platform X banned across the country.
In addition, the sanctions appear to extend to SpaceX’s satellite constellation Starlink, with reports suggesting that the company’s Brazilian accounts have been frozen.
On April 6 this year, Elon Musk removed restrictions on a number of accounts on X that had been banned as the result of a Brazilian court order. These accounts were linked to the far-right and had been accused of repeatedly spreading misinformation on the platform.
Musk argued, however, that the court order to ban these accounts was “unconstitutional” and called on the overseeing Supreme Court justice, Alexandre de Moraes, to “resign or be impeached”.
Moraes responded by once again reiterating the bans must be enforced, or the X platform itself risked being banned in Brazil. The country’s communications minister, Paulo Pimenta, voiced his support for the ban, saying that “social networks are not a lawless land“.
“We will not allow anyone, regardless of the money and power they have, to affront our homeland,” he said.
Musk responded to the government’s renewed requests by attacking Moraes in various X posts, including sharing derogatory AI-generated images of Moraes, one of which showed the Judge behind bars in a prison cell. He also closed the company’s Brazilian office, leaving the government without a legal interlocutor to resolve the issue.
As such, X was given until August 30 to appoint a new legal representative for Brazil, or else see the platform suspended.
Now, with the deadline passed, X has been banned in Brazil, leaving tens of millions of users disconnected.
In addition to direct impact on X, Brazilian courts have also frozen the accounts of Starlink, the satellite communications service run by SpaceX, also owned by Musk. The move renders the company unable to conduct financial transactions in Brazil.
SpaceX is planning an appeal against this ruling, arguing that the court order “is based on an unfounded determination that Starlink should be responsible for the fines levied—unconstitutionally—against X”.
Brazil is currently one of Starlink’s largest markets, with over 250,000 customers, many of whom live in such remote locations that Starlink is the only available form of internet connectivity.
The ongoing clash between Elon Musk and the Brazilian government is part of a wider clamp down on social media platforms all over the world, with regulators highlighting their ability to spread disinformation and threaten democracy. Last week, France arrested the owner and CEO of Telegram, Pavel Durov, accusing him of being complicit in the platform’s facilitation of illicit transactions and distribution of sexual images of children by gangs, as well as a refusal to communicate with authorities.
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