Brazilian Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes ordered this Friday the suspension of the social network as retaliation for failure to appoint a legal representative at the South American giant, in a new escalation of the fight with Elon Musk’s business conglomerate.
De Moraes has already notified the decision to the National Telecommunications Agency, whichYou now have 24 hours to apply it. Additionally, Apple and Google’s online stores must remove the X app within a maximum of five days.
The judge decides daily fines of up to 50,000 reais (around 8,000 euros) against individuals or companies that use alternative measures to circumvent the ban and access X, the social network formerly called Twitter and now owned by tycoon Elon Musk, reports the news portal G1.
The company, which is being sued in Brazil for a fine of 18 million reais (about 2.9 million euros) for failing to remove the contents, had already assumed that it was only a matter of hours before De Moraes ordered the closure. In a statement, he warned that “will not comply with illegal orders to censor political opponents”.
Musk, who had accused President Luiz Inácio Lua da Silva in recent hours of being the Supreme Court judge’s “lapdog”, has again filed a complaint against De Moraes after the blockade was confirmed. “Freedom of expression is the cornerstone of democracy and an unelected pseudo-judge in Brazil is destroying it for political purposes,” he said.
The American tycoon also directly criticized the threat of fines against those who try to access X: “The repressive regime in Brazil is so afraid that Let people know the truth that will ruin those who try.“.
