Brazil’s Supreme Court on Monday upheld a ban on Elon Musk’s social media platform X — effectively barring more than 200 million people from using the popular app.
A three-out-of-five-judge majority on the panel voted in a virtual hearing to uphold the decision of Judge Alexandre de Moraes, who last Friday ordered X blocked for failing to appoint a local legal representative as required by law.
X will remain offline until he complies with de Moraes’ orders and pays outstanding fines that as of last week topped $3 million, according to the court’s website.
Musk and other free speech advocates have denounced de Moraes’ decision as a draconian act of censorship and a blow to free speech — while the judge has insisted that X needs hate speech regulations.
The world’s richest man, who acquired the site formerly known as Twitter in late 2022 with the aim of allowing unfettered speech on the app, hit out at de Moraes shortly before Monday’s ruling.
“He violated Brazil’s constitution repeatedly and egregiously after swearing to defend it,” Musk tweeted on X.
In another post, Musk said de Moraes’ “actions are against the will of the Brazilian people he is supposed to represent.”
Musk and X did not immediately comment after the decision.
The dispute over X has its roots in a Moraes order from earlier this year that required the platform to block accounts implicated in investigations into the alleged spread of distorted news and hate.
De Moraes’ ruling also imposed a daily fine of nearly $10,000 against anyone using a virtual private network (VPN) to circumvent the ban in order to access X.
The proposed fine is particularly severe given that most Brazilians earn an annual salary of less than $10,000.
Before Monday’s ruling, Musk’s satellite internet provider, Starlink, told Brazil’s telecoms regulator it would challenge a court order to block X until its local accounts are dissolved.
De Moraes last week ordered all telecom providers in the country to shut down X. The move led to the freezing of Starlink’s bank accounts in Brazil.
The largest country in South America and the seventh most populous nation in the world, it is one of X’s largest markets.
According to research group Emarketer, around 40 million Brazilians access the site at least once a month.
Tensions between X and de Moraes began two years ago when a judge ordered the suspension of accounts linked to supporters of former president Jair Bolsonaro.
It has been claimed that the far-right Bolsonaro has sought to undermine the voting system in the 2022 elections, which brought the current leader – President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva – to power.
In April, de Moraes ordered authorities to investigate X on suspicion that he reactivated some of the banned pro-Bolsonaro accounts.
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