Source: AFP
A standoff between a Brazilian Supreme Court judge and Elon Musk intensified Thursday as the billionaire’s company Starlink said its assets had been frozen in the country amid a dispute over the fate of social networking platform X.
The episode began on Wednesday when Brazilian Supreme Court judge Alexandre de Moraes threatened to suspend X, formerly known as Twitter, unless Musk appointed a new legal representative for the company in Brazil within 24 hours.
Then on Thursday, Musk’s satellite internet provider Starlink said it had received an order from Moraes that “freezes Starlink’s finances and prevents Starlink from conducting financial transactions” in the country.
Starlink, which operates in Brazil, particularly in the Amazon, claimed the order “is based on an unfounded decision that Starlink should be liable for the fines imposed — unconstitutionally — against X.”
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The company told X that it intended to “address the matter legally.”
Moraes, who also chairs Brazil’s Supreme Electoral Court, has led the fight against disinformation in South America’s largest nation, clashing with Musk along the way.
Several of the X accounts he ordered suspended belonged to supporters of Brazil’s former far-right president Jair Bolsonaro, who sought to discredit the electoral system in the 2022 election, which he lost.
Moraes’ decision on Wednesday escalated the months-long feud.
Back in April, Moraes ordered an investigation into Musk, accusing him of reactivating some of the banned accounts.
Musk and other critics accuse Moraes of stifling free speech.
In the order released Wednesday, Moraes told Musk to “appoint the company’s new legal representative in Brazil within 24 hours.”
“In case of non-compliance with the order, the decision provides for the suspension of the social network’s activities in Brazil,” it said.
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After the order, the hashtag “O Twitter morre” (“Twitter is dead”) went viral in Brazil, and leftist President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva posted a message on the platform with the addresses of his other social media accounts.
Musk responded to the order by accusing Moraes of “repeatedly violating the laws he has sworn to uphold.”
He also posted a sarcastic message and a photo depicting Moraes as “Voldemort and the Sith Lord,” a nod to the villains of the Harry Potter and Star Wars sagas.
Musk shut down X’s business operations in Brazil earlier this month, alleging that Moraes had threatened the company’s previous legal representative with arrest to force him to comply with “censorship orders.”
Brazilian users meanwhile continued to access the social networking site.
Musk is also the subject of a separate judicial investigation into an alleged scheme where public money was used to orchestrate disinformation campaigns in favor of Bolsonaro and his cronies.
Source: AFP
