X It said it was immediately suspending business operations in Brazil, but the service would remain available to users in the country. The says the company Alexandre de Moraes, president of the Supreme Electoral Court and judge of the Supreme Federal Court, threatened to arrest one of X’s legal representatives if he “disobeyed his censorship orders”.
according to Reutersde Moreas demanded that X remove certain content from its platform. Rather than comply, X chose to suspend its local operations “to protect the safety of our staff.”
According to X, de Moraes made his threat with a “secret order” that he publicly shared. X’s owner Elon Musk claimed the request “would require us to violate (confidential) Brazilian, Argentine, American and international laws.” He added that “the decision to close the 𝕏 office in Brazil was a difficult one, but if we agreed to @alexandre’s (illegal) secret censorship and personal data handover demands, we cannot shamelessly explain our actions.”
Last night, Alexandre de Moraes threatened our legal representative in Brazil with arrest if we did not comply with his censorship orders. He did it on a secret order and we are sharing it here to expose his deeds.
Despite the fact that our numerous appeals to the Supreme Court were not considered,… pic.twitter.com/Pm2ovyydhE
— Global Government Affairs (@GlobalAffairs) August 17, 2024
“Despite the fact that our multiple appeals to the Supreme Court were not considered, the Brazilian public was not informed of these orders, and our Brazilian employees had no responsibility or control over whether content was blocked on our platform, Moraes chose to threaten our employees in Brazil rather than respect the law or due process,” X said in a statement on Global Government Affairs.[de Moraes’] actions are incompatible with democratic government. The Brazilian people have the right to choose – democracy or Alexandre de Moraes.”
Musk has been fighting hard against de Moraes for months. In April, he said he would challenge a lawmaker’s order to block some accounts in Brazil, arguing they were unconstitutional. de Moraes in response obstructed justice investigation Against the mask. X said at the end of April He would follow every order given by the Brazilian high courts.
That same month, the House Judiciary Committee announced the interim staff report It claims the Brazilian government is trying to force X (and other social media platforms) to censor more than 300 accounts. It was reported that the accounts belong to the former president of Brazil, Jair Bolsonaro, a member of the country’s federal senate, and a journalist.
X did not have a public relations team that could be reached for comment.
