SAO PAULO — Brazil started blocking Elon Musk’s social media platform X, making it largely inaccessible on both the web and through mobile apps early Saturday after the billionaire failed to name a legal representative in the country.
De Moraes had warned Musk on Wednesday night that X services in Brazil could be shut down if he failed to comply, and established a 24-hour deadline. In response, the entrepreneur has fired back at the judge with insults and accusations of authoritarianism. De Moraes said the platform would remain blocked until it complies.
The justice gave internet service providers and app stores five days to block access to X, and said the platform will stay suspended until it complies with his orders. He established the same deadline for app stores to remove virtual private networks, or VPNs, and set a daily fine of 50,000 reais for people or companies using them to access X. .
In his decision Friday, de Moraes' cited Musk's statements as evidence that X's conduct “clearly intends to continue to encourage posts with extremism, hate speech and anti-democratic discourse, and to try to withdraw them from jurisdictional control.” A search Friday on X showed hundreds of Brazilian users inquiring about VPNs that could potentially enable them to continue using the platform by making it appear they were logging on from outside the country. It was not immediately clear how Brazilian authorities would police this practice and impose fines cited by de Moraes.
Also on Thursday evening, Starlink, Musk’s satellite internet service provider, said on X that de Moraes this week froze its finances, preventing it from doing any transactions in the country where it has more than 250,000 customers.