Musk’s Starlink Backs Down, Agrees to Block X in Brazil

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(Bloomberg) -- Elon Musk’s satellite internet provider Starlink reversed course and said it would comply with an order by Brazil’s top court to block access to X, the billionaire’s social network, in Latin America’s largest country.

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Starlink, which had its bank accounts frozen by judicial order, had informally told Anatel, the country’s telecommunications watchdog, that it wouldn’t comply with the requirement, according to the agency.

“Regardless of the illegal treatment of Starlink in freezing of our assets, we are complying with the order to block access to X in Brazil,” the company said on X, formerly known as Twitter.

Musk is in a bitter standoff with Brazil after Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes ordered X be banned as part of his campaign against disinformation. The dispute expanded to Starlink after X failed to pay fines and the judge moved to block the internet provider’s accounts in a bid to force the billionaire to comply with previous orders.

The list of assets frozen by the court includes the bank accounts and financial assets of Starlink Brazil Holding Ltda and Starlink Brazil Servicos de Internet Ltda along with cars, real estate, boats and aircraft. Moraes also ordered the central bank to prevent the company from sending or receiving money from abroad.

Anatel has registered an increase in hacking attacks, “which caused momentary system and network instability,” it said in a statement Tuesday. Brazil’s Supreme Court and the Federal Police have also reported cyberattacks.

Brazil’s ban on X has become a rallying cry for the network of right-wing political allies Musk has cultivated in recent years.

In the US, Donald Trump’s son has used it as a warning of what awaits if his father is defeated in his bid to reclaim the White House. Republican senators, meanwhile, are calling on the National Football League to cancel a high-profile game in Sao Paulo this week that’s part of its international marketing push.

Within Brazil, former President Jair Bolsonaro’s supporters are seizing on claims of “censorship” a month ahead of a municipal vote that will be a key test of support for the governing Workers’ Party nationally.

Though it’s depriving X of one of its biggest markets outside the US, the ban so far seems to be a cost Musk is willing to eat as it raises his profile and burnishes his image as a global defender of free speech.

Starlink has about 225,000 broadband internet contracts in Brazil, according to Anatel. That makes it the 16th ranked provider with just a 0.5% market share.

(Updates with context from 7th paragraph.)

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