Headline Roundup • August 30th, 2024
Brazil Bans X After Legal Showdown Over Disinformation
Summary from the AllSides News Team
Brazilian Supreme Court justice Alexandre de Moraes ordered Brazil's government to block X after the company refused to cooperate with court orders.
The Details: The feud between Moraes and X began in April when the social media platform ignored court orders to suspend accounts for posting "disinformation," prompting Moraes to order the freezing of the company's bank accounts. Earlier this month, X closed operations in Brazil and accused Moraes of threatening its legal representative with arrest. Friday's court decision instructs internet providers to block X and declares a fine of $9,000 per day for using a VPN to access it.
Key Quotes:
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"Elon Musk showed his total disrespect for Brazilian sovereignty and, in particular, for the judiciary, setting himself up as a true supranational entity and immune to the laws of each country," de Moraes wrote in his decision.
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In anticipation of the ban, X released a statement accusing de Moraes of "illegal orders [for X] to censor his political opponents. These enemies include a duly elected Senator and a 16-year-old girl... We are absolutely not insisting that other countries have the same free speech laws as the United States. The fundamental issue at stake here is that Judge de Moraes demands we break Brazil’s own laws."
How the Media Covered It: New York Times (Lean Left bias) mentioned that "American advertisers have fled" X after Musk loosened content moderation and described Moraes as a "polarizing" wielder of "expansive powers to crack down on threats to democracy online." ZeroHedge (Lean Right) characterized Moraes' decisions as orders to "censor [his] political opponents" and mentioned that Musk's satellite internet company Starlink had also seen its "finances blocked." BBC (Center) discussed the Starlink feud in detail and added context around Brazil's previous bans of Telegram and Whatsapp.
Featured Coverage of this Story
Carly Zavala for The New York Times
Brazil blocked the social network X on Friday after its owner, Elon Musk, refused to comply with a Brazilian judge’s orders to suspend certain accounts, the biggest test yet of the billionaire’s efforts to transform the site into a digital town square where just about anything goes. Alexandre de Moraes, a Brazilian Supreme Court justice, ordered internet providers to block access to X across the nation of 200 million because the company lacked a necessary legal representative in Brazil. Mr. Musk closed X’s office in Brazil last week after Justice...
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Reuters
Brazil's Supreme Court has ordered the "immediate and complete suspension" of X, formerly Twitter, in the country. In a statement, the court said it will ban the social media platform until X complies with all court orders and pays existing fines. Justice Moraes, who has been involved in a long-running row with X, had given the social media platform 24 hours to name a new legal representative or face suspension, with a deadline of Thursday evening. The platform is expected to be unavailable in the country within the next 24...
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ZeroHedge
Judge Bans X In Brazil For Refusing To Comply With Demands As we previewed overnight, Elon Musk's X has been ordered 'immediately suspended' by Brazilian Supreme Court Judge Alexandre de Moraes, citing the company's refusal to comply with a legal order to censor the judge's political opponents, Bloomberg reports. Officially, the ruling was due to Musk's refusal to name a legal representative for the social network (after the judge froze his last attorney's bank accounts). On Thursday, X's global government affairs account said that it would "not comply in secret...
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