On Friday, Elon Musk’s X reportedly sought Brazil’s Supreme Court to lift the platform ban and agreed to an order to block nine accounts investigated for hate speech.
According to reports, the platform had complied with orders to halt the spread of disinformation.
Additionally, Musk had resisted for over five months, describing the situation as censorship during a conflict with a judge in one of X’s key and highly sought-after markets. The court restricted Brazilian users’ access to the platform in late August.
A court ruling on X’s potential return is still awaited, but sources close to Musk in Brazil suggest that the service could be reinstated within days.
Late Thursday, the platform emphasized that access to it in Brazil is crucial for a healthy democracy and affirmed its respect for the sovereignty of the nations where it operates.
The company’s global affairs team also stated in a post that they will continue defending freedom of expression and due process through legal means.
Meanwhile, Justice Alexandre de Moraes, leading a local effort against perceived threats to democracy and the political use of disinformation, banned the platform. The decision came after Musk closed X’s offices in Brazil.
The legal dispute also affected another of Musk’s major ventures, the satellite Internet provider Starlink, as de Moraes froze its accounts. This action led the billionaire to call him a dictator.
Brazil X Users Shifts to Threads and BlueSky
Bruna Santos, a lawyer and global campaign manager, noted that Brazilian X users have moved to its rivals, Threads, and BlueSky, which might have contributed to the platform’s withdrawal.
Santos also noted that it is too early to predict whether the dispute over the banned platform and Brazil’s supreme court has ended. Nevertheless, X’s appointment of a representative signals that the firm has begun cooperating in good faith with Brazilian authorities.
Brasilia is not the first to ban social media sites. The platform has also faced restrictions in authoritarian regimes like Russia, China, and Iran and temporary limitations in others.
