Social media platform X announced over the weekend that it would cease operations in Brazil “with immediate effect.” The reason cited was that Supreme Federal Court Judge Alexandre de Moraes had issued a “censorship order.”
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As reported by Reuters news agencyX alleges that Moraes secretly threatened the company’s legal representative in Brazil with arrest if the company did not comply with a court order to remove certain content. The social media company owned by US billionaire Elon Musk published photos of a document allegedly signed by Moraes. It states that if the social media platform does not fully comply with Moraes’ orders, X representative Rachel Nova Conceição will be fined 20,000 reais (3,350 euros) per day and an arrest warrant will be issued. “For the safety of our employees, we have decided to shut down our operations in Brazil with immediate effect,” X wrote. Despite the announcement, the short messaging service is still available in Brazil, the company announced on Saturday.
Investigation against the “digital militia”
Moraes has been leading an investigation against so-called “digital militias” for some time. They are accused of spreading fake news and hate speech during the tenure of right-wing extremist President Jair Bolsonaro. As part of the investigation, the judge ordered X to block some accounts earlier this year. In April, Moraes personally targeted Elon Musk when he announced that he would not comply with the requirement to block X accounts. Musk described Moraes’ decisions in relation to X as “unconstitutional”.
When asked why they remained active, X’s representatives later informed the court that the company would comply with the court’s rulings.
In a post on X on Saturday, Musk called Judge Moraes a “blatant disgrace to the judiciary.” Musk further said his company could not agree to “(the judge’s, note) demand for secret censorship and release of private information.”
Limitations for Meta
But it’s not just X that is at odds with Brazil’s justice system. Facebook and Instagram’s parent company Meta are also facing court orders. Last week, the federal court in São Paulo banned messaging service WhatsApp from sharing Brazilian user data with other Meta companies, for example for the personalized display of third-party advertising.
The interim injunction also requires WhatsApp to install within 90 days a mechanism that, among other things, allows users to revoke the data protection policy introduced by WhatsApp in 2021.
(AKN)
