Elon Musk bows to pressure from Brazil’s top court in a bid to reinstate X

After a blackout of more than three weeks, X appears ready to comply with court orders in Brazil to restore access to its 21 million users in the country and end a protracted fight between billionaire CEO Elon Musk and the country’s highest court.

Lawyers for X informed Brazil’s Supreme Court on Friday that it had named legal representation, according to Reuters, a key requirement for reinstating the social media platform in the major market. A day later, the court gave X an additional five days to file paperwork formalizing that representation.

X has remained offline in Brazil for most of September, aside from a brief and inadvertent few hours last week, showing users a message that said: “Posts aren’t loading right now.”

When X did come back online fleetingly, on September 18, the company said it was committed to working with the Brazilian government to make the site available again, in a dramatic shift in tone from just weeks earlier.

On August 30, hours before the nation’s ban went into effect, the same account had posted pointed and political accusations against Brazilian Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes.

Musk had repeatedly attacked de Moraes on X in the months leading up to the ban, most recently calling him “Brazil’s Voldemort,” “Brazil’s Darth Vader,” and a “dictator.” He had also launched an X account dedicated to exposing alleged abuses of power by de Moraes.

To be reinstated in Brazil, X needs to finalize its legal representation paperwork, pay a fine of approximately $1 million to account for the temporary return of service last week and provide proof that all accounts identified by the court had been blocked.

Protecting democracy

The order to block specific X accounts dates back to May 2020, when de Moraes determined they contained hate speech and targeted democratic institutions. Most of the flagged accounts belonged to political supporters of Jair Bolsonaro, the far-right former president of Brazil.

In 2023, Bolsonaro was barred from running for office for eight years after the country’s highest court found him guilty of abusing power and peddling a conspiracy that voting machines were compromised. He is also under investigation for his potential role in the January 8, 2023 attacks on Brasilia, the capital.

The orders were part of a sweeping investigation into the spread of misinformation online and hate speech with a particular focus on content that tried to undermine democracy.

This included unfounded claims that Brazil’s 2022 presidential elections were stolen, echoing Donald Trump’s “Big Lie” about the 2020 US elections. The inquiry also investigated the pervasiveness on the platform of other conspiracy theories, false accusations and threats targeting politicians and Supreme Court justices.

Initially, X complied and removed the accounts. But in April, X’s Global Affairs account called the court’s orders illegal and said a year-long wait for an appeal had violated due process. Musk then threatened to reinstate the accounts, saying “principles matter more than profit.”

X has not responded to a CNN request for comment.

The feud between Musk and de Moraes has expanded far beyond the courts. During the temporary return of X last week, Bolsonaro posted a message of support for Musk and X, saying the court decision to block users was not just censorship but “a serious violation of fundamental rights.”

In the US Congress, Florida Rep. Maria Elvira Salazar, a Republican, mentioned Musk and de Moraes by name last week when she introduced legislation that would punish foreign officials who violate the First Amendment rights of Americans by denying them entry into the United States.

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