After months of openly challenging the decisions of the Brazilian Supreme Court, Elon Musk announced the shutdown of X (formerly Twitter) in Brazil. The decision was communicated to all 40 X employees in the country on the morning of August 17, 2024. However, Musk kept X’s services available to Brazilian users as an attempt to circumvent the Brazilian Supreme Court rulings against the platform.

The absence of a local office will create difficulties for authorities attemptingto enforce their rulings. The Brazilian Supreme Court has now ordered the country’s National Telecommunications Agency (Agência Nacional de Telecomunicações – ANATEL) to suspend access to the social network entirely.

Allegations of censorship

The tension between Musk and Brazilian Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes has been escalating over recent months. In early April, the Brazilian Supreme Court ordered the blocking of 10 X accounts as part of an investigation by the Federal Police into individuals allegedly advocating for a coup to overturn the results of Brazil’s last presidential election in 2022. These accounts, which were linked to supporters of the former president, were accused of spreading fake news.

At the time, Musk launched a public offensive against Moraes, accusing him of censorship and threatening to disobey court orders. This provoked Moraes to open an investigation against Musk and impose a daily fine of $20,000 for each unlocked profile if the judicial orders were not followed.

At time of writing, Musk’s position has not changed. Before deciding to close X operations in Brazil, Musk challenged another Brazilian Supreme Court order to block additional profiles. On August 8, Moraes ordered the blocking of seven more X accounts, also linked to supporters of the former president and accused of spreading fake news. X did not comply with the court order and issued a public statement denouncing the decision as censorship.

Musk declared in his X profile that the closure was due to “censorship demands” from Supreme Court Justice Moraes.

According to X’s public statement, Moraes had threatened to imprison one of the company’s representatives, Rachel de Oliveira Villa Nova Conceição, demanded her immediate removal from management, and imposed a monetary daily fine. Therefore, Musk decided to close X operations in Brazil.

Hours later after the official announcement, Musk declared in his X profile that the closure was due to “censorship demands” from Supreme Court Justice Moraes. Likewise, X Global Government Affairs issued a public note disclosing a confidential order from Moraes directed at the company. The statement reiterated Moraes’ threat to arrest the company’s legal representative in Brazil if they failed to comply with his orders.

It also highlighted the company’s numerous appeals to the Brazilian Supreme Court, noting that the local team had no responsibility or control over whether the content was blocked on the platform – an issue the company claims was not considered by Moraes. In conclusion, X criticized the Brazilian Supreme Court Justice directly, asserting that his actions are inconsistent with democratic government.

Controversy surrounding Moraes

Moraes’s actions are not going unnoticed. He issued controversial decisions that affected the outcome of Operation Car Wash – Brazil’s biggest corruption scandal. Last year, his rulings suspending the measures of the Odebrecht S.A. (currently named Novonor) leniency agreement were widely criticized by legal experts in the country and by the international anti-corruption community. Both Transparency International and the OECD Working Group on Bribery have questioned Brazil’s ability to fight corruption. (For more information, please see our previous articles, Controversies in the fight against corruption in Brazil and Past positives no guarantee of a better future as Brazil battles bribery).

Days after the decision was issued on August 8, 2024, the newspaper Folha de São Paulo – one of Brazil’s biggest – obtained six gigabytes of messages and files exchanged via WhatsApp between Moraes’s staff and the Superior Electoral Court. These communications reveal unofficial requests made after the 2022 presidential elections, allegedly aimed at investigating supporters of the former president. Folha de São Paulo claims that it obtained the material from sources who had access to data from a phone containing the messages and that this did not result from illegal interception or hacking.

“All procedures were official, regular, and are properly documented in the ongoing inquiries and investigations at the Brazilian Supreme Court, with full participation of the Attorney General’s Office.”

Alexandre de Moraes, Brazilian Supreme Court Justice

According to the report, the files were forwarded to the fake news investigation at the Brazilian Supreme Court, and some used by Moraes to justify criminal measures against supporters of the former president, such as passport cancellations, social media bans, and summonses for testimony before the Federal Police. Additionally, the report notes that some conversations discussed the potential for the evidence to be invalidated due to the informal nature of the requests.

Moraes’s office issued a public statement clarifying that, during the investigations, various orders, requests, and inquiries were made to numerous agencies, including the Superior Electoral Court. He added: “All procedures were official, regular, and are properly documented in the ongoing inquiries and investigations at the Brazilian Supreme Court, with full participation of the Attorney General’s Office.” There is so far no official information available regarding any actions that may be taken on potentially invalid evidence in the fake news ongoing investigation.

Nevertheless, Moraes does not seem to be concerned about any doubts regarding the discretion of his actions. Last week, he ordered ANATEL to suspend X’s services in the country, with the suspension taking effect on August 31, 2024. He also imposed a monetary fine of approximately $9,000 on individuals who access the platform through a VPN.

The decision has once again been criticized by Brazilian legal experts. The president of the Privacy Committee of the Brazilian Bar Association expressed concern about aspects of the decision that conflict with international law. Additionally, the complete suspension of the platform – rather than just the accounts targeted in the fake news investigation – has worried the legal community in the country.

Accusations of political activism

Tensions between Musk and Moraes do not seem likely to ease anytime soon. On one side, there are the controversial decisions of Moraes, who has taken advantage of the lack of clear regulations on social media and appears to be influenced by his relationship with the current president of the country. On the other side, Brazilian legal experts are questioning whether Musk’s openly declared actions against the Brazilian Supreme Court are part of a global far-right strategy to hinder investigations into the possible coup attempt in Brazil on January 8, 2023.

Musk’s political activism has made waves not only in Brazil but also in Argentina, in addition to the US. Meanwhile, the X platform has faced serious accusations of fostering anti-immigrant, antisemitic, and racist content. The situation has escalated to the point where several companies have suspended advertising on X after their ads appeared alongside pro-Nazi content.

Although Musk denies being antisemitic, industry experts warn of the potential reputational damage to businesses that continue to associate with X. While Musk’s influence on global social media is undeniable, the controversies surrounding X could undermine its credibility, particularly in the political context.