Brazil awaits X shutdown as Musk dismisses legal order

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Brazil was on Friday facing a shutdown of the social media platform X after billionaire Elon Musk refused an order by a Supreme Court judge to name a new legal representative for the company.

Musk has been locked in a months-long feud with the judge, Alexandre de Moraes, who is leading a battle against disinformation in South America's largest nation.

"Soon, we expect Judge Alexandre de Moraes will order X to be shut down in Brazil – simply because we would not comply with his illegal orders to censor his political opponents," X said in a statement shortly after the passing of a 24-hour deadline for the company to name a legal representative.

The app and website are still accessible in Brazil, where it has more than 22 million users, according to the specialized portal DataReportal.

For the block to take effect, the Supreme Court must notify the national telecommunications agency to prevent access to X, according to experts. The court has not indicated whether it has already done so.

"Any citizen from anywhere in the world who has investments in Brazil is subject to the Brazilian Constitution and laws," President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva told a local radio station on Friday.

"Who does (Musk) think he is?"

The standoff with Musk began when Moraes ordered the suspension of several X accounts belonging to supporters of Brazil's former far-right president Jair Bolsonaro, who tried to discredit the voting system in the 2022 election, which he lost.

Brazilian authorities are investigating whether Bolsonaro plotted a coup attempt to prevent his 2022 election opponent, Lula, from assuming office in January 2023.

Online users blocked by Moraes include figures like far-right ex-congressman Daniel Silveira, who was sentenced to nine years in prison in 2022 on charges of leading a movement to overthrow the Supreme Court.

In April, Moraes ordered an investigation of Musk, accusing him of reactivating some of the banned accounts on the network formerly known as Twitter.

Musk and other critics accuse Moraes of stifling free speech.

- Starlink finances frozen -

Musk shut X's business operations in Brazil earlier this month, claiming Moraes had threatened the company's previous legal representative with arrest to force compliance with "censorship orders."

The South African-born Tesla boss fired off tweets calling Moraes a "evil dictator cosplaying as a judge" and accusing him of "trying to destroy democracy in Brazil."

On Thursday, Musk's satellite internet operator Starlink said it had received an order from Moraes that "freezes Starlink's finances and prevents Starlink from conducting financial transactions" in the country.

Starlink, which operates in Brazil, particularly in the Amazon, alleged that the order "is based on an unfounded determination that Starlink should be responsible for the fines levied -- unconstitutionally -- against X."

The company said on X that it intended "to address the matter legally."

Musk is also the subject of a separate judicial investigation into an alleged scheme where public money was used to orchestrate disinformation campaigns in favor of Bolsonaro and those close to him.

The proliferation and amplification of misinformation and conspiracy theories on social media have sparked debate over the need for content moderation and a balance between calling out falsehoods and veering towards censorship or curbing free speech.

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