Brazil’s Top Court Threatens to Ban X Over Legal Representative Dispute with Elon Musk

 Brazil’s Supreme Court has vaccinated Elon Musk severely and with a serious warning: It will block his social media application, X, in the country if the founder does not hire a lawyer within the next 24 hours. Thursday morning’s order, disclosed by a Brazilian news outlet, was made by Supreme Court judge Alexandre de Moraes, who says failure to disarm results in Twitter’s suspension of operations in Brazil. 

 This is the latest tit-for-tat between Musk and de Moraes, who has vanguard the fight against fake news in Brazil. A few months ago, the judge blocked more than 100 accounts on X, some of which belonged to supporters of former Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro. Bolsonaro, who rejected the result of the 2022 election in favor of Mr. Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, has floated deceitful rumors about Brazil’s electronic voting. 

 In April, de Moraes accused Musk of launching a disinformation operation against his own country and working to erode democracy in Brazil after Musk ignored the court order to suspend some accounts on X. Musk, who came to power promising to defend free speech, has publicly condemned de Moraes for allegedly censoring everyone in Brazil and violating the Brazilian Constitution. 

 At the beginning of this month, X said it wanted to cease operations in Brazil because de Moraes threatened to issue an arrest warrant for one of the company’s lawyers. The Supreme Court said nothing in response to X’s statement at the time. 

Bolsonaro’s right-wing supporters, who have witnessed the former president banned from occupying any federal office until 2030 by de Moraes and other judges for his baseless claims of fraud in electronic voting, have accused the judge of overreaching to muzzle rivals. However, some people appreciate the efforts of de Moraes, claiming that he has been instrumental in the fight against disinformation and threats originating from the far right. 

 Another area of concern is Musk’s connection to Brazil, especially after the meeting he had with Bolsonaro in 2022, during which they discussed further expansion of Musk’s Starlink satellite internet service as well as other technological developments in the region. 

 In this scenario, the possibility of X being suspended in Brazil highlights the conflict between these large American companies and governments worldwide regarding moderation of content and how the right to free speech can trample on the right to freedom from fake news.