Brazilian Supreme Federal Tribunal (STF) Minister Alexandre de Moraes threatened on Wednesday to block access to X in Brazil if the social media platform does not appoint a legal representative in the country within 24 hours.
De Moraes, the equivalent of what in the United States would be a Supreme Court justice, subpoenaed X and its owner, Elon Musk, in a post made on the site itself on Wednesday night — a move that the STF itself reportedly described as “unprecedented,” as it marks the first time the Brazilian top court has subpoenaed someone on social media.
@GlobalAffairs @elonmusk Mandado de intimação pic.twitter.com/gQUwNCy1Cr
— STF (@STF_oficial) August 28, 2024
The order gives X a 24-hour deadline to inform the STF of “the name and qualification” of the platform’s new legal representative in Brazil “under penalty of immediate suspension of the activities” of X.
The court order, which de Moraes digitally signed, comes one week after X announced the closure of its office in Brazil. The decision, according to X’s global government affairs team, was in response to de Moraes allegedly threatening to arrest the platform’s Brazilian legal team if it did not comply with his censorship orders:
Despite our numerous appeals to the Supreme Court not being heard, the Brazilian public not being informed about these orders and our Brazilian staff having no responsibility or control over whether content is blocked on our platform, Moraes has chosen to threaten our staff in Brazil rather than respect the law or due process.
“As a result, to protect the safety of our staff, we have made the decision to close our operation in Brazil, effective immediately,” the message continued. “The X service remains available to the people of Brazil. We are deeply saddened that we have been forced to make this decision. The responsibility lies solely with Alexandre de Moraes.”
Musk responded by posting a picture of de Moraes that was photoshopped to resemble a villain from the Star Wars franchise. Shortly afterward, Musk, in a separate post, said that de Moraes “has repeatedly broken the laws he has sworn to uphold.”
Grok “Generate an image as if Voldemort and a Sith Lord had a baby and he became a judge in Brazil”
It’s uncanny! pic.twitter.com/aTdVRg9jrw
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) August 29, 2024
Wednesday’s STF court order marks the latest development in the ongoing feud between de Moraes, a self-styled “anti-fake news” crusader, and Musk, who has claimed to refuse to comply with some of de Moraes’ censorship orders throughout 2024.
De Moraes has ordered numerous censorship actions over the past years against Brazilian citizens, journalists, comedians, and politicians supportive of former President Jair Bolsonaro. The judge maintains an active inquiry against individuals or organizations that allegedly propagate “fake news” and a separate probe intended to investigate so-called “anti-democratic digital militias” that spread “fake news” and “threaten democracy” in Brazil.
Some of his censorship rulings have forced X and other social media platforms — such as YouTube, Facebook, and Instagram — to restrict access to specific accounts within Brazilian territory, preventing users in Brazil from interacting with them or accessing their content.
De Moraes, through the two open inquiries, has also ordered police raids against individuals accused of spreading “fake news.” Bolsonaro and members of his family have been some of the targets of the police raids.
In April, de Moraes opened an investigation into Musk after Musk announced that he would defy a court order de Moraes issued that demanded the platform censor a group of accounts under penalty of a daily fine of roughly $19,700 per account that it failed to censor.
Musk responded by calling for de Moraes’ impeachment and accusing the judge of rigging Brazil’s 2022 presidential election, in which socialist convicted felon Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva narrowly defeated then-incumbent Bolsonaro. During Brazil’s 2022 presidential campaign, de Moraes forced Bolsonaro’s campaign to refrain from referring to Lula as a “thief” or “criminal” in reference to Lula’s multiple convictions on corruption charges. De Moraes also rapidly dismissed Bolsonaro’s formal election challenge lawsuit and imposed a $4.27 million fine on the former president’s party for “bad faith litigation.”
While X eventually caved to de Moraes’ censorship demands in April, the judge continued to demand that it comply with new censorship actions.
In August, shortly before X announced the closure of its Brazilian office, the social media platform announced that it received a court order from de Moraes dated July 23 that gave the platform a five-day deadline to censor a new group of accounts. X stated that the order would not just impact Brazilians but “residents of the United States and Argentina.”
On August 14, X published a copy of another STF court order that de Moraes signed that demanded the censorship of another group of Brazilian users, including “a pastor, a current Parliamentarian, and the wife of a former Parliamentarian.”
“We believe the Brazilian people should know what is being asked of us,” X said at the time.
A report published in mid-August by the left-wing Brazilian newspaper Folha de Sao Paulo indicated that, based on text message logs and other media reviewed by the newspaper, de Moraes had allegedly ordered the unofficial production of reports by Brazil’s Electoral Court later used to support his own rulings against supporters of Bolsonaro.
The left-wing newspaper stated that it found at least “two dozen” cases of irregularly requested reports, some of which were eventually used by de Moraes to support “criminal measures” against supporters of Bolsonaro, such as canceling their passports, blocking their social media accounts, and ordering them to testify before the Brazilian Federal Police.
De Moraes denied any wrongdoing in the reports and claimed that all investigations made under the “fake news” and “digital militias” inquiries were “official, regular and duly documented” with the knowledge and “full participation” of the Attorney General’s Office.
Christian K. Caruzo is a Venezuelan writer and documents life under socialism. You can follow him on X here.