Hibapres
Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva stressed on Friday that Elon Musk must comply with the decisions of the Federal Supreme Court, which gave the owner of X a 24-hour ultimatum to appoint a legal representative for his messaging platform in Brazil.
X was still operating in Brazil as of Friday morning, but the platform said Thursday that it expected Judge Alexandre de Moraes, who issued the injunction, “to order its suspension shortly” after the court-imposed deadline expires, “simply because we have not complied with his illegal orders to censor his political opponents.”
The billionaire posted a message saying that “this ‘judge’ has repeatedly violated the laws he swore to uphold.” He also published a photo montage with a sarcastic message calling the magistrate “the son of Voldemort and a Sith Knight,” an allusion to the villains of the Harry Potter and Star Wars sagas.
Amid the standoff over X, the court also froze the local bank accounts of its Starlink satellite company.
On August 17, Elon Musk announced the closure of X’s offices in Brazil, while leaving the service available for Brazilian users.
Under Brazilian internet laws, social networks must have a representative based in the country. To stop X’s activities in Brazil, Judge Moraes would have to order telecommunications companies to block the platform’s traffic.
The judge, who is responsible for investigating allegations of interference in justice, criminal organization and incitement to crime carried out via the social platform, opened an investigation into Elon Musk in April, accusing him of reactivating accounts that had been ordered suspended by the Brazilian courts. Musk, for his part, accuses him of stifling freedom of expression.
