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A Brazilian Supreme Court judge on Friday ordered the suspension of Elon Musk’s social media network X in the country, following a months-long standoff in South America’s largest country over misinformation.
Judge Alexandre de Moraes made the ruling after Musk failed to comply with an order to appoint a new legal representative for the company.
Musk, who also owns Tesla and SpaceX, reacted angrily, calling Moraes an “evil dictator posing as a judge” and accusing him of “trying to destroy democracy in Brazil.”
“Free speech is the cornerstone of democracy, and an unelected pseudo-judge in Brazil is destroying it for political purposes,” the billionaire, who has increasingly leaned toward right-wing politics, wrote on X.
The two men have been engaged in a months-long, high-profile feud as Moraes leads a fight against disinformation in Brazil.
Musk has previously declared himself a “free speech absolutist,” but since taking over the platform formerly known as Twitter in 2022 he has been accused of turning it into a megaphone for right-wing conspiracy theories.
He is an active supporter of former US President Donald Trump’s return to the White House.
Moraes ordered an “immediate, total and total suspension” of X’s operations in the country and asked the national communications agency to take “all necessary measures” to implement the order within 24 hours.
He threatened to fine anyone who used “technical means” to circumvent regulation, such as using a VPN, 50,000 reais ($8,900).
He also asked Google, Apple and internet providers to “introduce technical barriers to prevent the use of application X” and access to the site – although he later withdrew that order.
The social media platform has more than 22 million users in Brazil.
Earlier this month, Musk shut down Tesla X operations in Brazil, claiming that Moraes had threatened to arrest the company’s former legal representative to force it to comply with a “censorship order.”
On Wednesday, Moras told Musk he had 24 hours to find new representatives or face suspension.
Shortly after the deadline, X said in a statement that it expected Morais to shut down the site “simply because we will not comply with his illegal orders to censor our political opponents.”
– “Who does Elon Musk think he is?” –
The standoff with Musk began after Moraes ordered the suspension of several X accounts of supporters of Brazil’s former far-right president Jair Bolsonaro, who tried and failed to discredit the voting system for the 2022 election.
Brazilian authorities are investigating whether Bolsonaro is planning a coup to prevent current President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva from taking office in January 2023.
Web users blocked by Morais include figures such as Daniel Silveira, a far-right former congressman who was sentenced to nine years in prison in 2022 for leading a campaign to overthrow the Supreme Court.
In April, Moras ordered an investigation into Musk, accusing him of reactivating some banned accounts.
On Thursday, Musk’s satellite internet operator Starlink said it had received an order from Moraes freezing its accounts and preventing it from conducting financial transactions in Brazil.
Starlink claimed that the order was “based on an unfounded determination that Starlink is liable for the fines unconstitutionally imposed on X.”
The company said on X that it intends to “resolve this matter through legal channels.”
Musk is also facing another judicial investigation into allegations that he used public funds to orchestrate a disinformation campaign for Bolsonaro and his cronies.
“Any citizen from anywhere in the world who invests in Brazil must abide by the Brazilian constitution and laws,” Lula told a local radio station on Friday.
“Who does Elon Musk think he is?”
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