Brazil temporarily shut down Musk’s X-Network after a court ordered it to pay a fine and change the way it obtained false information.

As of early Saturday morning, users in Brazil were unable to access Elon Musk’s X social network. The reason is that the local Supreme Court ordered the temporary closure of the platform on Friday. The report came from AFP and the Associated Press.

AFP reported that starting Saturday morning, users began seeing a message asking them to reload their browsers but were unable to successfully log in.

Temporarily closed

Brazil’s Supreme Court on Friday ordered the temporary closure of social network X after a court-imposed deadline for the company to appoint legal representatives in the country passed.

Brazil’s telecom regulator Anatel then ordered ISPs to suspend users’ access to the platform, and major operators began doing so by midnight local time on Saturday.

Judge Alexandre de Moraes ordered the immediate and complete temporary closure of the X platform until all relevant court orders regarding the network are complied with, including the payment of a fine of 18.5 million Brazilian reals (nearly 3 million euros) and the appointment of a legal representative for the platform in Brazil.

To prevent circumvention of the network blockade, the court also ruled that individuals and companies attempting to access the Internet using virtual private networks could be fined up to 50,000 reais (about 8,000 euros) per day.

Dangerous misinformation

The courts and X platform owner Elon Musk are in a long-running dispute over the spread of dangerous misinformation. This year, the courts have ordered the network to block some accounts that spread hate and misinformation during the tenure of right-wing populist President Jair Bolsonaro.

Musk denounced the order as censorship, and he responded by shutting down the platform’s operations in Brazil and ending its business activities there. However, the service remains available to users in the South American country.

Judge de Morais is also the president of the Supreme Electoral Court, which last year declared Bolsonaro ineligible to run for president again because he had spread false information about the electoral system.

In April, de Moraes ordered an investigation into Musk, accusing him of using the platform for criminal purposes. Musk responded by saying that while Platform X might lose revenue in Brazil, “principles are more important than profits.”