Brazilian judge suspends Musk’s X in ‘fake news’ crusade.

Brazil’s telecoms regulator said on Friday it had suspended access to Elon Musk’s social network X in the country to comply with an order from a judge embroiled in a months-long dispute with the billionaire investor.

The popular social media platform missed a court-imposed deadline on Thursday night to appoint a legal representative in Brazil, prompting the suspension.

Musk argued that Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes was trying to impose undue censorship, while the judge insisted that social media needed hate speech regulations.

“They are shutting down the #1 source of truth in Brazil,” Musk said in a post on X on Friday.

The judge’s ruling could cause X to lose one of its biggest and most coveted markets at a time when Musk has struggled with advertising revenue for the platform.

X remained accessible in Brazil late Friday, although some Brazilians posted on other platforms that their access to X had already been blocked. Three of the country’s leading telecommunications providers said they would begin blocking access from midnight (03:00 GMT Saturday), local news agency UOL reported.

Brazilian judge Alexandre de Moraes’ decision to shut down billionaire Elon Musk’s social media platform X is just the latest chapter in a no-holds-barred crusade against perceived attacks on democracy and the political use of disinformation.

Moraes ordered telecoms regulator Anatel to implement the suspension order and confirm to the court within 24 hours that it had implemented it.

Musk, who is also CEO of electric vehicle maker Tesla and rocket company SpaceX, had previously denounced the threatened move as censorship.

Moraes, 55, is a lawyer who was tough on crime when he was in charge of public security for the state of Sao Paulo. He rose to prominence in 2019, two years after his appointment to the Supreme Court, when he began leading an investigation into “fake news” produced during the administration of former far-right president Jair Bolsonaro.

The controversy led to the freezing of the bank accounts of satellite internet provider Starlink in Brazil this week. Starlink is a unit of Musk’s SpaceX rocket company.

In his ruling, Moraes ordered the suspension of X, formerly of Twitter, in Brazil until it complies with all relevant court orders, including paying fines of more than $3 million, as well as appointing a local representative, as required by Brazil. law.

Moraes also ordered telecoms regulator Anatel to implement the suspension order.

The agency told Reuters it was moving forward with compliance, but did not specify a timeline.

To effectively shut down X in Brazil, telcos would have to stop carrying network traffic, while also preventing users of the site from circumventing it by hiding their locations with virtual private networks, or VPNs.

Moraes ordered that those who continued to access X via VPN be fined up to 50,000 reais ($9,000) a day.

That investigation, which is still open, focused on what Moraes himself described as a “ministry of hate” operating out of Bolsonaro’s presidential palace to attack opponents and spread lies and distortions.

“Brazilian institutions have failed to properly regulate social media,” said André Cesar, a political analyst. “Morace has taken on the role of the big setter and he likes to do that.”

Among the falsehoods the judge investigated was criticism by Bolsonaro and his political associates that Brazil’s electronic voting system was open to manipulation.

Moraes was also in charge of investigating an alleged plot to stage a military coup to overturn Bolsonaro’s defeat of leftist President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva in 2022 and Bolsonaro’s encouragement of his supporters to storm and vandalize government buildings a week after Lula took office.

Under his leadership, the country’s electoral authority declared Bolsonaro ineligible for eight years, the first time this had happened to a Brazilian president in the country’s history.

Tech giants Apple and Alphabet’s Google were initially instructed to remove X from their app stores and implement so-called anti-VPN barriers that would make it harder for users of Apple’s iOS and Google’s Android operating systems to open the X app on phones or tablets. .

But Moraes later reversed that part of his order, saying it wouldn’t be necessary.

Lapdogs and dictators?

Unlike many other countries, Brazil’s Supreme Court judges are able to exercise sweeping powers to make unilateral decisions. However, in the X dispute, Moraes was supported by the majority of the 11-member court, including Chief Justice Roberto Barroso.

Musk, in addition to owning X and 40% of SpaceX, is the CEO of electric vehicle giant Tesla.

The X controversy stems from a Moraes order from earlier this year that required the platform to block accounts involved in investigations for allegedly spreading distorted news and hate.

Musk, who has compared Moraes to “Harry Potter” villain Voldemort, has also described the judge as a “dictator,” calling him “an arbitrary criminal of the worst kind masquerading as a judge.”

In his fight against misinformation, the judge ordered social media networks to remove posts by politicians and influencers he deemed a threat to Brazil’s institutions, typically on accounts of Bolsonaro supporters who denied he had lost his 2022 re-election bid.

And that’s where his interactions with Musk’s platform began.

After Musk questioned his decision to ban some accounts and said he would reactivate them, Moraes in April opened an investigation against the billionaire for obstruction of justice.

Earlier this month, X announced it was closing its Brazilian offices due to what it called “censorship orders” from Moraes, although it kept its website open to Brazilian users.

Musk denounced the order as censorship. It responded by closing the company’s offices in Brazil, but ensured the platform was still available in the country.

He said Starlink would continue to serve Brazilians, including the military, for free “until this issue is resolved.”

Earlier on Friday, Starlink asked the High Court to stay its decision to freeze its local bank accounts, arguing that it has complied with all court orders. That request was denied Friday night.

Asked to comment, Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva insisted that all businesses operating in the country must comply with their legal obligations.

“Just because a guy has a lot of money doesn’t mean he can’t respect the law,” the leftist leader said on local radio on Friday.

Musk mocked the president as Moraes’ “dog” in a Thursday post in which he also called the judge a “dictator.”

At an event on Friday, Moraes showed no signs of backing down.

“Those who violate democracy, who violate fundamental human rights, whether in person or through social media, must be held accountable,” he said.

While Moraes’ defenders see him as a crusader in defense of democracy, critics accuse him of using harsh methods to raid the homes of politicians and businessmen, arrest them without trial and freeze their bank accounts.

Before sitting on the Supreme Court, Moraes was justice minister after serving as secretary of public security in his home state of São Paulo.

Moraes, a Catholic, has conservative views on the economy. For years, he was a member of the centrist Brazilian Social Democratic Party that has largely disappeared from the political landscape.