X lockdown: dispute between Elon Musk and Brazil's authorities escalates
An X account polemicizes against the judge responsible for blocking X. Starlink announces that it will oppose a court order.
(Image: Angga Budhiyanto/Shutterstock.com)
Tech billionaire Elon Musk's dispute with the Brazilian authorities continues. The owner of the social network X presented an account at the weekend accusing Brazilian judge Alexandre de Moraes of violating the constitution when he ordered X to be blocked in Brazil. In addition, Starlink, a satellite internet provider also owned by Musk, announced that it would not comply with the Brazilian judiciary's decision to block access to X in Brazil.
Federal Judge De Moraes of the Brazilian Supreme Court ordered this block at the end of last week. He accuses the service of not taking decisive enough action against the spread of hate speech and fake news. For weeks, Musk has refused to comply with Brazilian court orders to block certain X accounts and ignored fines imposed. In mid-August, he closed X's office in Brazil and dismissed the remaining employees so that the courts could not hold them accountable.
X attacks the judge responsible
The ruling to block X in Brazil is in turn based on a law in the country that requires providers of digital networks to maintain a representative office in the country so that they can be notified of relevant court decisions and implement ordered measures. This concerns, among other things, the removal of illegal content. This Monday, a five-member panel of the Supreme Court confirmed the closure of the social media platform X in Brazil, as reported by the news agency Bloomberg.
Elon Musk, however, seems far from giving in to the dispute. The X-owned account @alexandrefiles posted an image of a Brazilian Supreme Court order asking the social network to block several accounts and suspend the monetization that X offers its users who pay a monthly fee. "Today we begin to clarify the violations of Brazilian law committed by Alexandre de Moraes," reads the account's introductory message. "We felt compelled to disseminate these orders because there is no transparency on the part of the court and the people affected by the censorship have no means of appeal," it continues.
Starlink does not want to implement court order
The dispute escalated further at the weekend. Starlink, the satellite internet service controlled by Musk, informed the Brazilian telecommunications authority Anatel that it would not comply with the orders to block X until the Brazilian authorities release Starlink's frozen assets. This was made public by the President of Anatel, Carlos Baigorri, in a TV interview. At the same time as blocking X, Judge De Moraes had ordered the freezing of all Starlink's assets in the country. This was in an attempt to collect the outstanding fines of more than three million US dollars. While some experts consider the action against Starlink to be questionable, the Brazilian Supreme Court quickly rejected an appeal by the satellite provider to have the assets released. Musk, in turn, responded with a series of insults against De Moraes; he described the financial sanctions against Starlink as "absolutely illegal".
Anatel President Baigorri threatened to revoke Starlink's license to operate in Brazil, which would prohibit the company from offering connectivity to its Brazilian customers. Should Starlink attempt to offer its services in Brazil without a license, Anatel could confiscate Starlink's equipment in the 23 ground stations in Brazil, Baigorri threatened in the TV interview.
Deterioration in relations
Not so long ago, Starlink was a very welcome business partner in Brazil. Under the far-right president Jair Bolsonaro, Brazil negotiated with SpaceX to bring Starlink Internet to the Amazon. The government wanted the company to provide satellite internet in the Amazon rainforest and help detect illegal deforestation.
Starlink has been active in Brazil since 2022 and, according to the US daily New York Times, currently has 250,000 customers in the country. Musk himself claims to have supplied 19,000 Brazilian schools with internet. What is certain is that the service now connects rural and even the most remote areas to the internet. This, in turn, has reportedly led to problems for indigenous communities in the Amazon rainforest that are not unknown to us.
Elon Musk against Brazil's judiciary
Now, however, Starlink is increasingly caught between the fronts of Elon Musk's dispute with Brazil's judiciary. The judiciary has been investigating so-called "digital militias" for some time under the leadership of Judge De Moraes. These are accused of spreading disinformation, hate speech and threats to democracy during Bolsonaro's time in office. Numerous accounts on digital networks have been blocked as a result of various rulings in recent years.
But Platform X is not the only one affected. Brazilian judges have blocked the messenger service WhatsApp several times in the past because the company, which belongs to Meta, had not complied with court and police orders. In 2022, De Moraes also threatened to shut down the messaging service Telegram in Brazil. This service had also repeatedly ignored requests to delete profiles and pass on user data.
However, the dispute between Musk and the Brazilian courts has a different quality. It "also illustrates the sheer power of Mr. Musk and his business empire", writes the New York Times. "Having built or bought leading companies that have more and more control over the way people connect and communicate, Mr. Musk is trying to use that influence to tangle with authorities and challenge laws he does not like."
(akn)
