Bras\u00edlia
\nA block on Elon Musk\u2019s X social network in Brazil began to take effect early on Saturday after a Supreme Court judge ordered its suspension, according to AFP.
\nBrazilian Supreme Court judge Alexandre de Moraes on Friday ordered the suspension of the platform following a months-long standoff with the tech billionaire over disinformation in South America\u2019s largest nation.
\nMoraes handed down the ruling after Musk failed to comply with an order to name a new legal representative for the company.
\nEarly on Saturday access to X, formerly known as Twitter, was no longer possible for some users in the South American country, who were presented with a message asking them to reload the browser without being able to log in successfully.
\nMusk, who also owns Tesla and SpaceX, reacted with fury to the judge\u2019s order, branding Moraes an \u201cevil dictator cosplaying as a judge\u201d and accusing him of \u201ctrying to destroy democracy in Brazil\u201d.
\n\u201cFree speech is the bedrock of democracy and an unelected pseudo-judge in Brazil is destroying it for political purposes,\u201d the billionaire, who has become increasingly aligned with right-wing politics, wrote on X.
\nThe two have been locked in an ongoing, high-profile feud for months as Moraes leads a battle against disinformation in Brazil.
\nMusk has previously declared himself a \u201cfree speech absolutist\u201d but since he took over the platform formerly known as Twitter in 2022 he has been accused of turning it into a megaphone for right-wing conspiracy theories.
\nHe is a vocal supporter of former US president Donald Trump\u2019s bid to regain the White House.
\nMoraes ordered the \u201cimmediate, complete and comprehensive suspension of the operation of\u201d X in the country, telling the national communications agency to take \u201call necessary measures\u201d to implement the order within 24 hours.
\nHe threatened a fine of 50,000 reais ($8,900) to anyone who used \u201ctechnological subterfuges\u201d to get around the block, such as a virtual private network.
\nThe judge also demanded Google, Apple and internet providers \u201cintroduce technological obstacles capable of preventing the use of the X application\u201d and access to the website \u2014 though he later walked back that order.
\nThe social media platform has more than 22 million users in Brazil.
\nMusk shut X\u2019s business operations in Brazil earlier this month, claiming Moraes had threatened the company\u2019s previous legal representative with arrest to force compliance with \u201ccensorship orders\u201d.
\nOn Wednesday, Moraes told Musk he had 24 hours to find a new representative or he would face suspension.
\nShortly after the deadline passed, X said in a statement that it expected Moraes to shut it down \u201csimply because we would not comply with his illegal orders to censor his political opponents\u201d.
\nWho does Musk think he is?\u2019
\nThe standoff with Musk began when Moraes ordered the suspension of several X accounts belonging to supporters of Brazil\u2019s former far-right president Jair Bolsonaro, who tried to discredit the voting system in the 2022 election, which he lost.
\nBrazilian authorities are investigating whether Bolsonaro plotted a coup attempt to prevent current President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva from assuming office in January 2023.
\nOnline users blocked by Moraes include figures such as far-right ex-congressman Daniel Silveira, who was sentenced to nine years in prison in 2022 on charges of leading a movement to overthrow the Supreme Court.
\nIn April, Moraes ordered an investigation of Musk, accusing him of reactivating some of the banned accounts.
\nOn Thursday, Musk\u2019s satellite internet operator Starlink said it had received an order from Moraes that froze its accounts and prevented it from conducting financial transactions in Brazil.
\nStarlink alleged that the order \u201cis based on an unfounded determination that Starlink should be responsible for the fines levied \u2014 unconstitutionally \u2014 against X\u201d.
\nThe company said on X that it intended \u201cto address the matter legally\u201d.
\nMusk is also the subject of a separate judicial investigation into an alleged scheme where public money was used to orchestrate disinformation campaigns in favour of Bolsonaro and those close to him.
\n\u201cAny citizen from anywhere in the world who has investments in Brazil is subject to the Brazilian Constitution and laws,\u201d Lula told a local radio station on Friday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Bras\u00edlia A block on Elon Musk\u2019s X social network in Brazil began to take effect early on Saturday after a Supreme Court judge ordered its suspension, according to AFP. Brazilian Supreme Court judge Alexandre de Moraes on Friday ordered the suspension of the platform following a months-long standoff with the tech billionaire over disinformation in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":428453,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-428430","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"yoast_head":"\n