X ceases operations in Brazil
The short message service X withdraws from Brazil for the time being and raises accusations of censorship. The dispute has been simmering for some time.
(Image: Angga Budhiyanto/Shutterstock.com)
The social media platform X announced at the weekend that it would cease operations in Brazil "with immediate effect". The reason given was that the judge at the Supreme Federal Court, Alexandre de Moraes, had issued "censorship orders".
As reported by the news agency Reuters, X claims that Moraes secretly threatened a legal representative of the company in Brazil with arrest if the company did not comply with the court order to remove certain content. The social media company, owned by US billionaire Elon Musk, published images of a document allegedly signed by Moraes, stating that X representative Rachel Nova Conceição would be fined 20,000 reais (€3,350) per day and an arrest warrant would be issued if the social media platform did not fully comply with Moraes' orders. "In order to protect the safety of our employees, we have decided to suspend our operations in Brazil with immediate effect," wrote X. Despite the announcement, the short messaging service is still available in Brazil, the company announced on Saturday.
Investigations into "digital militias"
Moraes has been leading investigations into so-called "digital militias" for some time. These are accused of spreading fake news and hate speech during the term of office of far-right president Jair Bolsonaro. As part of the investigation, the judge ordered X to block certain accounts at the beginning of this year. In April, Moraes then took personal aim at Elon Musk after he announced that he would not comply with the order to block X accounts. Musk described Moraes' decisions in relation to X as "unconstitutional".
When asked why X had not fully complied with the court orders, lawyers for the company in Brazil told the Supreme Court that "operational errors" had allowed blocked users to circumvent the restrictions and remain active on the social media platform. X representatives later informed the court that the company would comply with the court rulings.
In a post on X on Saturday, Musk called Judge Moraes an "absolute disgrace to the justice system". His company could not have agreed to the "secret censorship and [the judge's] demands for the release of private information", Musk continued.
Restrictions for Meta
But it's not just X that is at loggerheads with Brazil's judiciary. The Facebook and Instagram parent company Meta is also facing court orders. Last week, the Federal Court of São Paulo prohibited the messenger service WhatsApp from sharing Brazilian user data with other Meta companies, for example for the personalized display of third-party advertising.
The injunction also obliges WhatsApp to set up functions within 90 days that allow users to revoke the privacy policy introduced by WhatsApp in 2021, among other things.
(akn)
