Fines Imposed on Musk’s X as Platform Resurfaces in Brazil Defying Ban
Brazil’s Supreme Court levied a daily fine of more than $921,000 against Elon Musk’s X for violating a court order that blocked its operations in the country after the social media platform temporarily restored access to Brazilian residents following an update to its communications network.
The fine, announced in a ruling handed down by Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes on Sept. 18, also encumbers the satellite internet service provider Starlink, which de Moraes said he considers part of the same Musk-controlled group and so is liable if X refuses to pay up.
In his decision to impose the fine, the judge accused X of willfully disobeying a judicial order he issued on Aug. 30, which mandated the suspension of the platform in Brazil.
De Moraes’s ruling was made on the same day that the social media platform acknowledged that it had accidentally restored access to users in Brazil due to a change of network providers but that this would be short lived.
“When X was shut down in Brazil, our infrastructure to provide service to Latin America was no longer accessible to our team. To continue providing optimal service to our users, we changed network providers. This change resulted in an inadvertent and temporary service restoration to Brazilian users,” X’s Global Affairs team wrote in a message on social media.
“While we expect the platform to be inaccessible again shortly, we continue efforts to work with the Brazilian government to return very soon for the people of Brazil.”
But de Moraes didn’t seem to accept X’s explanation that the restoration of service was inadvertent.
“The willful, illegal, and persistent noncompliance of the X platform in fulfilling court orders was directly admitted by its majority shareholder, Elon Musk, in a post on the X platform addressed to the entire national territory,” de Moraes wrote, using all caps for many words, according to a translation of the order, which was issued in Portuguese.
De Moraes cited an enigmatic post written by Musk on social media as evidence of the CEO’s apparent confession. “Any sufficiently advanced magic is indistinguishable from technology,” Musk wrote.
The judge added in the ruling that he believes there is “no doubt” that X “again intends to disrespect the Brazilian justice system.”
De Moraes’s original decision to ban X in Brazil was based on the claim that misinformation and harmful content was being disseminated on the platform, which led to a dispute between X’s leadership and Brazilian authorities.
Musk has been highly critical of the suspension, calling it censorship. X’s Global Affairs team said on Aug. 29 that it expected de Moraes would issue the ban, saying the reason was “simply because [X] would not comply with his illegal orders to censor his political opponents.”
The Brazilian Association of Internet and Telecommunications Providers said that the X update had routed some Brazilian users through third-party cloud services outside the country. This allowed users to access the platform even without a virtual private network (VPN).
Brazil’s telecom regulator, Anatel, which is responsible for implementing the court ruling, said it was working to notify content delivery network providers and telecom companies to block access to X once again.
It’s unclear whether X intends to pay the latest fine, with its press team not responding to a query from The Epoch Times.
By suspending X, Brazil joins countries such as China, Russia, North Korea, Turkmenistan, Burma, Iran, and Pakistan, where the platform is also banned.
The Alliance Defending Freedom International (ADF), a legal advocacy group, has said that Brazilian authorities have created “one of the most oppressive cultures of censorship in the Western Hemisphere—one which could spread across the West.”
“Heavy-handed government censors will use whatever tool [is] at their disposal to chill speech—and as Brazil shows us that includes fining people for using VPNs to access disfavored platforms,” the ADF’s senior vice president of corporate engagement, Jeremy Tedesco, told The Epoch Times in an earlier emailed statement.
“This reminds us that the censor knows no bounds and that we must resist every attempt to trample our precious free speech rights.”
Owen Evans contributed to this report.
