Social media platform X said on Saturday that that it is shutting down its operations in Brazil with “immediate effect” and blamed the Brazilian top judge, Alexandre de Moraes for its decision.
The company’s decision comes after a legal battle with Alexandre de Moraes over the platform’s rights and responsibilities to counter disinformation, Al Jazeera reported.
The Global Government Affairs team of X, via their official handle @GlobalAffairs, has accused Alexandre de Moraes of threatening their legal representative in Brazil with arrest for non-compliance with his censorship orders. They stated that instead of adhering to the law, Moraes intimidated their staff in Brazil, describing his actions as “incompatible with democratic governance.”
The social media giant released pictures of a document allegedly signed by Moraes that says a daily fine of 20,000 reais and an arrest decree would be imposed against X representative Rachel Nova Conceicao if the platform did not fully comply with Moraes’s orders, according to Al Jazeera report.
In a statement, X’s Global Government Affairs team said, “Last night, Alexandre de Moraes threatened our legal representative in Brazil with arrest if we do not comply with his censorship orders. He did so in a secret order, which we share here to expose his actions. Despite our numerous appeals to the Supreme Court not being heard, the Brazilian public not being informed about these orders and our Brazilian staff having no responsibility or control over whether content is blocked on our platform, Moraes has chosen to threaten our staff in Brazil rather than respect the law or due process.”
“As a result, to protect the safety of our staff, we have made the decision to close our operation in Brazil, effective immediately. The X service remains available to the people of Brazil. We are deeply saddened that we have been forced to make this decision. The responsibility lies solely with Alexandre de Moraes. His actions are incompatible with democratic government. The people of Brazil have a choice to make – democracy, or Alexandre de Moraes,” it added.
The move follows the legal battle between Moraes, who has said he is trying to fight the spread of disinformation online, and X’s owner Elon Musk.
Elon Musk has also reacted to the decision and called Alexandre de Moraes’ an “utter disgrace to justice.”
In response to the Global Government Affairs team statement, Musk on X stated, “Due to demands by “Justice” @Alexandre in Brazil that would require us to break (in secret) Brazilian, Argentinian, American and international law, X has no choice but to close our local operations in Brazil. He is an utter disgrace to justice.”
Earlier this year, Alexandre de Moraes ordered X to block certain accounts accused of spreading false information and hate messages, including some accounts belonging to supporters of Brazil’s former President Jair Bolsonaro, Al Jazeera reported.
Bolsonaro repeatedly claimed that Brazil’s electronic voting system was vulnerable to fraud before a tightly contested election in 2022. Months after facing defeat by Brazil’s President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, a mob of Bolsonaro’s supporters stormed the top state institutions in Brazil to express anger over the results.
Moraes, who presides over Brazil’s Superior Electoral Tribunal, said, “Freedom of expression doesn’t mean freedom of aggression.” He further said, “It doesn’t mean the freedom to defend tyranny.”
Earlier this year, Moraes opened a probe into the billionaire after Musk said he would reactivate accounts on X that the judge had ordered to block.
After Musk’s announcements, social media platform representatives told Brazil’s Supreme Court that X would comply with the legal rulings, according to Al Jazeera report.
Earlier in April, lawyers representing X in Brazil told the Supreme Court that “operational faults” have permitted users who were ordered blocked to stay active on the platform, after Moraes had asked the social media platform to share details of why it allegedly had not fully complied with his decisions.
