Brazilian Judge Threatens To Suspend Elon Musk’s X By Thursday Evening

Elon Musk and his team in Brazil challenged the decision to censor those accounts, claiming the decision was “unconstitutional,”  which led Moraes to opening an inquiry into Musk in April.

However, X employees operating within Brazilian jurisdiction eventually acquiesced to the court’s decision and obeyed the legal rulings.

Earlier this month following the dispute, X announced that its operations would close within the country and it would let go of all staff operating within Brazil due to “censorship orders” from the judge, however, X would still be available for users within the country.

Additionally, X representatives claimed that Moraes threatened one of the companies legal representatives within the country behind closed doors, should X defy the court order to censor content on the platform.

“Last night, Alexandre de Moraes threatened our legal representative in Brazil with arrest if we do not comply with his censorship orders. He did so in a secret order, which we share here to expose his actions,” X’s Global Government Affairs account posted.

The Wednesday ruling declared that companies who do not follow the country’s law to regulate internet speech could have their operations temporarily suspended.

Nikolas Ferreira, a Brazilian politician with 4 million followers on X, weighed in on the country’s efforts to censor and suspend the platform.

“Banning X from Brazil affects not only @elonmusk but more than 22 million users that do not want to be censored. This is NOT democracy no matter what the leftists say,” he wrote.

Elon Musk also claimed that Moraes has blocked financial accounts belonging to Starlink, another separate company that Musk owns in Brazil.

“This guy [Moraes] is an outright criminal of the worst kind, masquerading as a judge,” Musk wrote on X.

Musk’s company X has until 8pm local time on Thursday to comply with the courts orders or face temporary suspension in the country, which would prohibit millions of Brazilians from accessing the platform.