Brazil’s Supreme Court announced Friday that a judge ordered the transfer of about $3 million from Elon Musk’s companies to pay fines to his social network X, which has been suspended in the country.
Judge Alexandre de Moraes last month ordered X to be shut down in Brazil after Musk refused to remove dozens of right-wing accounts and then failed to name a new legal representative in the country as ordered.
A brief statement from the court said Moraes “arranged the transfer to state coffers of 18.35 million reais ($3.28 million) tied up in accounts” of X and satellite Internet company Starlink, both owned by Musk.
Moraes has repeatedly clashed with the South African-born billionaire after he was tasked with fighting misinformation.
It also froze the assets of X and Starlink, which has been operating in Brazil since 2022 — specifically in remote communities in the Amazon — to ensure payment of fines imposed on X for failing to follow court orders.
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The social networking platform formerly known as Twitter has more than 22 million users in Brazil.
Moraes also ordered that those using “technological subversions” such as virtual private networks (VPNs) to access the blocked website could be fined up to $9,000.
His measures have fueled debate about freedom of expression and the limits of social networks both inside and outside the country.
Leftist President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva welcomed the ban, while his far-right predecessor Jair Bolsonaro called Moraes a “dictator”.
Source: AFP