Brazilian Supreme Court Bans X

Elon Musk's social media platform will be allowed to return if it agrees to comply with Brazil's telecommunications laws.

There was a new turn in Elon Musk’s international “keep Jair Bolsonaro out of jail” campaign today as, after months of failing to comply with Brazilian law, Supreme Court Minister Alexandre de Moraes ordered the X social media platform pulled off the air in Brazil. Brazil now becomes the second South American nation to ban X in the last two months. Moraes motion is expected to be ratified by the entire Supreme Court in a plenary session during the first week of September. The following is a news story I produced for TeleSur English’s From the South, followed by the transcript.

Narrator: Millions of Brazilians woke up on August 31 in a country which no longer has X after the Supreme Court ordered the national telecommunications agency to block the social media platform for non-compliance with national legislation. The move came 12 days after Elon Musk closed X's Brazilian offices in an attempt to avoid liability in a criminal investigation against the company.

Lula da Silva - President of Brazil:

“He has to respect the rulings of the Brazilian Supreme Court. If he wants to, fine, if not, he needs patience. If it wasn't for this this country would never be sovereign. Our society doesn't have an inferiority complex where, just because the guy is American and he yells we get afraid. No. This guy has to obey our country's laws. And if the Supreme Court makes a decision, he has to respect it. If this holds for me, it holds for him too.”

Narrator: When suspects in Brazil's investigation into the failed, Jan 8 2023 coup attempt began to threaten and dox federal agents online, the Justice Ministry ordered all social media companies to de-platform them. X not only refused, but company owner Elon Musk personally doubled down on threats against the Supreme Court. Consequently, on August 6, the company was charged with obstruction of justice and issued an $8000/day fine for non-compliance with court orders.

Fabio de Sa e Silva - Lawyer and University of Oklahoma Professor of Brazilian Studies

“The bottom line is that there is nothing new about this. It's a old kind of conflict between a big multinational corporation and a nation's legal system. The international corporation is trying to say that it doesn't have to obey a country's laws and court rulings simply because it doesn't serve its business or political interests. In this case we know two things. First, Twitter/X has a specific vision that the internet should be unregulated. But also, Musk, the owner of the platform, has a political sympathies that are closely aligned with the Brazilian far right.”

Narrator: Brazil is now the second South American nation to ban X in less than 2 months. The Venezuelan government banned the platform in August after authorities discovered it being used by the far right opposition to incite nationwide acts of violence during the days following the presidential elections.

Nicolas Maduro - President of Venezuela

“Elon Musk is the owner of X. He's violated all the norms, inciting hatred, fascism, civil war, death. He's broken Venezuela's laws. And there are laws in Venezuela. Let's have respect for our laws.”

Narrator: Brazil's Supreme Court has announced that all X has to do to resume operating, is to comply with the law by re-designating a legal representative in Brazil.
Brian Mier, TeleSur, Recife