In the next few hours, the social network X (formerly Twitter) could shut down in Brazil. This Thursday at 8:07 pm local time, the deadline that Alexandre de Moraes, Minister of the Supreme Federal Court (STF), had set for X to appoint a legal representative in Brazil expired. Not only did the company not comply with the order, but it issued a statement accusing the court of censorship: “We hope that soon Minister Alexandre de Moraes will order the blocking of X Brasil, simply because we do not comply with his illegal orders to censor his opponents.
The possible closure of Since Elon Musk closed X’s office in Brazil on August 17, the company has found itself in a legal limbo. Earlier this month, Alexandre de Moraes ordered the imprisonment of Rachel Conceição, X’s legal representative in Brazil, “for disobedience to the judicial decision to block profiles with anti-democratic content.”
Following the events of January 8, 2023 in Brasilia, Moraes requested the closure of several online profiles with coup-related content and imposed a daily fine of 100,000 reais (about 16,000 euros) per profile. For his part, X refused to do so, waving the flag of freedom of expression. The amount of the fine already exceeds 20 million reais (3.2 million euros). To guarantee its payment, Alexandre de Moraes seized the bank account of Starlink in Brazil last Thursday, a satellite internet company also owned by Elon Musk.
The recent rulings by the Brazilian courts have infuriated Musk. The tycoon has not only accused Alexandre de Moraes of being “an evil dictator disguised as a judge,” but has also attacked President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, calling him a “lapdog.”
Gradual closure
The possible blocking of X in Brazil will not be immediate. If Alexandre de Moraes or the STF plenary assembly (in case Moraes decides to submit the decision to a vote) decides on its blocking, the measure will be gradual. The first step is to communicate the order to the National Telecommunications Agency (Anatel), which transmits the measure to more than twenty thousand Internet operators in Brazil as well as to the Google Play Store and the Apple Store. Given the technical complexity of completely blocking X, the process could take days.
Despite Musk’s accusations of censorship, there is broad agreement that X is violating Brazilian law. The company is not required to have a headquarters in Brazil, but it does have a legal representative in the country. Additionally, you have a legal obligation to comply with court orders, according to Articles 11 and 12 of the Internet Civil Framework.
In statements on a radio show, President Lula highlighted these failings of Elon Musk: “Every citizen is subject to the Brazilian Constitution and Brazilian laws. It is not because you have a lot of money that you have the privilege of not respecting the law.
Robson Carvalho, from the Institute of Political Science of the University of Brasilia (UnB), considered the attitude of the owner of X as an attack on democracy and the rule of law. “If a private company and all communication companies, as well as any Brazilian citizen, respect the legislation, why wouldn’t Elon Musk respect it?” Brazilian Post.
For her part, Iná Jost, coordinator of the Freedom of Expression sector of InternetLab, emphasizes in statements to elDiario.es that X has “the obligation to comply with court decisions and the internal legislation of the country.” “This attack between censorship and legality serves a campaign of confrontation against the institutions. The closure of X’s office seems to me to be a response from the platform to the demand for compliance with a court decision,” adds Iná Jost.
However, Alexandre de Moraes’ measures have attracted some criticism. For Ricardo Sayeg, professor of economic law at the Pontifical Catholic University (PUC), seizing the account of Starlink (a company with a different directive than that of X) could violate the Civil Code. The conservative newspaper Sao Paulo Stadium He described Moraes’ maneuvers as “atypical.” For its part, the Brazilian newspaper São Paulo Newspaper He has been accusing the judge for weeks of skipping due process in his crusade against Musk.
Judge against tycoon
The first attack between Elon Musk and Alexandre de Moraes took place in 2022, when the latter was both Minister of the Federal Supreme Court (STF) and President of the Superior Electoral Tribunal (TSE). The social network, despite its criticism and denunciation of censorship, blocked some accounts. The disagreement worsened after the assault in Brasilia on January 8, 2023. Musk’s company refused to block accounts with coup content, such as that of Senator Marcos do Val. As a result, Moraes included
The reaction of the owner of X against the firm hand of Alexandre de Moraes, transformed into one of his main global enemies, was immediate. In April, Musk called Moraes a “brutal dictator”. The leak of the Twitter files started from his environment, with messages from former Twitter executives who accused Moraes of violating the privacy of some users for having requested the sending of private messages via this network.
The collateral effect of the war between super judge Moraes and Elon Musk was the filing of the Fake News Bill, at a favorable time for its approval in the Brazilian Congress. After Elon Musk’s attacks, Artur Lira, president of the Congressional Board of Directors and former ally of former President Jair Bolsonaro, took advantage of the situation to delay the project and dissolve the working group that was in charge of it.
For some time now, Brazilian President Lula da Silva has been stepping up the pressure on Elon Musk. In early August, Lula dealt him a hard blow: “There are people who, instead of helping, build rockets to look for a place to live. It doesn’t exist, you idiot, it’s here on Earth,” Lula said, without naming Elon Musk, owner of the space company Space. In favor of the government of Jair Bolsonaro and some regional governments, Starlink has obtained numerous concessions in the public sector.
Recently, Starlink has become the leader in satellite internet services in Brazil. At the same time, it is the preferred platform of organized crime that operates in regions of the country where internet connections are poor. “The entire flow of information, whether it comes from the armed forces, the public health sector, the police or schools, goes through Musk. “He has the power to disconnect the Amazon and cause its collapse,” Gilberto Maringoni, professor of international relations at the Federal University ABC (UFABC), told Empresa Brasil de Comunicación.
“Risk of interference” in elections
President Lula is already taking action to check Elon Musk’s power. In late 2023, the government vetoed a proposal to hire Starlink, and Lula himself announced the creation of InternetBras, an initiative by the state-owned Telebras to bring internet to schools in remote areas.
The closure of the extreme right in the city hall of São Paulo, which is rising rapidly in the polls and worrying the Bolsonaro family (political allies of Ricardo Nunes, current mayor of the city).
Following the accusation of illegally paying subscribers to make videos and spread hoaxes, platforms such as Instagram have deleted the candidate’s accounts. However, X has not complied with the court’s decision. Pablo Marçal’s official account, which has more than 420,000 subscribers, continues to publish information every few hours. X Brazil argued that “the total suspension of the @pablomarcal account, preventing it from publishing any content, implies a disproportionate restriction on freedom of expression.”
Before Alexandre de Moraes’ ultimatum, experts were already worried about X’s lack of control. Caio Machado, a research associate at Harvard and Oxford universities, warned of the risk of X’s interference in municipal elections in Brazil. After the final clash between Alexandre de Moraes and Elon Musk, uncertainty skyrocketed.
“Blocking X during the election period seems to me to be a bad measure. The most affected are a large group of users who use Twitter to communicate and consume information,” says Iná Jost. The progressive camp fears that if Justice ends up blocking X, the censorship narrative will strengthen the far right in the October elections.
