Nandini Roy Choudhury, writer
Brief news
- Brazil’s Supreme Court has imposed daily fines of approximately $920,000 on Elon Musk’s X for violating local laws, including the requirement for a legal representative and the removal of harmful content.
- The court has also mandated penalties on Starlink, Musk’s satellite service, and initiated investigations into influencers spreading misinformation.
- Despite recent compliance efforts, X’s access in Brazil may soon be entirely blocked as the court orders the shutdown of services circumventing the suspension.
Detailed news
The supreme court of Brazil issued a statement on Thursday, alleging that Elon Musk’s X is subject to substantial daily fines in Brazil for purportedly circumventing a prohibition on the service.
The Brazilian supreme court imposes penalties of $5 million in Brazilian reals per day, which is equivalent to approximately $920,000. The court declared that it would persist in imposing “joint liability” on Starlink, the satellite internet service that is owned and operated by SpaceX, Musk’s aerospace venture.
In early September, a jury of justices affirmed the suspension of X in Brazil, which was initially ordered by the country’s chief justice, Alexandre de Moraes, at the end of August. The court determined that X had violated Brazilian law under Musk, which mandates that social media companies employ a legal representative in the country and eradicate hate speech and other content that is considered detrimental to democratic institutions. The court also determined that X neglected to suspend accounts that were purportedly involved in the doxxing of federal officers.
X, which has recently transitioned to servers hosted by Cloudflare, appears to be utilizing dynamic internet protocol addresses that are continually in flux. This has allowed a significant number of users in Brazil to access the site. The company had previously employed static and specific IP addresses in Brazil, which were more readily disabled by internet service providers at the request of regulators.
Musk, who is the owner of X, which was previously known as Twitter, has been publicly criticizing de Moraes for months and has continued to do so even after the order was issued. De Moraes has been depicted as an adversary, with comparisons to the character Voldemort in Harry Potter and Darth Vader. Additionally, he has advocated for the impeachment of de Moraes on numerous occasions.
In the past, Brazil withdrew funds from the accounts of X and Starlink at financial institutions in the country to cover the penalties it imposed on X. The court will compute a total based on “the number of days of non-compliance” with its previous orders to suspend X nationwide, and the new sanctions will commence on Sept. 19.
X has complied with requests to remove profiles and posts in countries such as India, Turkey, and Hungary, despite Musk’s assertion that he is a free speech absolutist.
Musk and X may also be in the process of complying with Brazil’s suppression orders. On Wednesday, Correio Braziliense, a Brazilian publication, reported that X has initiated the barring of accounts in accordance with the suspension orders issued by the supreme court of Brazil.
According to reports, certain internet influencers are currently under investigation for the dissemination of misinformation and the encouragement of assaults on democratic institutions in Brazil. Their accounts were among the accounts that were purportedly prohibited.
X stated that it did not intend to reestablish access for Brazilian users.
“Our team was unable to access our infrastructure to provide service to Latin America when X was shut down in Brazil,” a company spokesperson stated to CNBC on Wednesday. “In order to maintain the highest quality of service for our users, we have switched network providers.” This modification led to a transient and inadvertent restoration of service for Brazilian users. Although we anticipate that the platform will cease to be accessible in Brazil in the near future, we are making every effort to collaborate with the Brazilian government to ensure that it is restored to the Brazilian people as soon as possible.
In order to prevent access to the platform, de Moraes has ordered Brazil’s national telecommunication agency, Anatel, to block Cloudflare, Fastly, and EdgeUno servers, as well as other entities that the court believes were “created to circumvent” a suspension of X in Brazil.
In a statement to CNBC, a spokesperson for Cloudflare stated that the company is not “enabling or preventing blocking.” The spokesperson also noted that “many of Cloudflare’s customers choose to use dedicated IPs, which is not unique in the industry.”
According to Data Reportal, X had an estimated 22 million subscribers in Brazil prior to its suspension.
