Brazil's Supreme Court is allowing Elon Musk's X to resume operations, apparently ending a months-long battle after the social network paid over $5 million in fines and reluctantly agreed to suspend accounts accused of spreading disinformation.
The court yesterday issued a press release announcing the reinstatement, saying that X has complied with all the orders it previously defied. Brazil Supreme Court Judge Alexandre de Moraes ordered that the suspension be ended and that telecom agency Anatel take steps to allow the platform's return.
The dispute began in April, when X refused to suspend certain accounts belonging to supporters of former President Jair Bolsonaro. X, formerly Twitter, was banned in Brazil for over a month. Internet providers, including Musk's Starlink service, were ordered to block the social network.
In late August, X claimed the orders violate Brazil's own laws and said it would defy them even if it meant being shut down. "Unlike other social media and technology platforms, we will not comply in secret with illegal orders. To our users in Brazil and around the world, X remains committed to protecting your freedom of speech," the company said at the time.
X now accepts “boundaries of the law”
X also said that de Moraes targeted the platform "simply because we would not comply with his illegal orders to censor his political opponents." Now that it has suspended the accounts, X said it is still fighting for free speech "within the boundaries of the law."
"X is proud to return to Brazil," the company's Global Government Affairs account said yesterday. "Giving tens of millions of Brazilians access to our indispensable platform was paramount throughout this entire process. We will continue to defend freedom of speech, within the boundaries of the law, everywhere we operate."
X reversed its stance over two weeks ago, saying in a court filing that it would block the suspended accounts and pay fines. X's earlier refusal to suspend accounts came despite Musk saying that his free speech battle would extend only as far as each country's laws allow. "By 'free speech,' I simply mean that which matches the law. I am against censorship that goes far beyond the law," Musk wrote before completing his Twitter purchase in 2022, despite also calling himself a "free speech absolutist."
Bolsonaro and his supporters praised Musk for refusing to block accounts, including at a rally attended by thousands of Brazilians last month. Some of the accounts that X refused to block reportedly belonged to users accused of threatening federal police officers involved in a probe of Bolsonaro, who was accused of instigating the January 8, 2023, attack on the Brazilian Congress after his election loss.
De Moraes last month froze the bank accounts of both Starlink and X and seized a total of $3.3 million from the companies, treating them as the same de facto economic group because both are controlled by Musk. X later agreed to pay the remaining fines, but its reinstatement was apparently delayed because the Supreme Court said last week that X paid the fines to the wrong bank.
X also had to appoint a new local legal representative to comply with the orders. X has said that its previous legal representative in Brazil resigned after de Moraes threatened her with imprisonment.
"We showed the world that here our laws should be respected, by whomever it may be," Brazil's communication minister, Juscelino Filho, said in a statement quoted by Reuters. President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva previously said that businesses in Brazil must follow local laws and that the country is "not obliged to put up with Musk's far-right ideology just because he is rich."
