- Judge Moraes issues a ruling because Musk does not comply with the order.
- Musk calls Moraes an “evil dictator disguised as a judge.”
- Moraes threatens $8,900 fine for using VPN to access X.
BRASILIA: A block on Elon Musk's social network X in Brazil went into effect early Saturday after a Supreme Court judge ordered its suspension, according to AFP.
Brazilian Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes on Friday ordered the suspension of the platform following a months-long standoff with the tech billionaire over misinformation in South America's largest nation.
Moraes issued the ruling after Musk failed to comply with an order to appoint a new legal representative for the company.
Early Saturday morning, some users in the South American country were unable to access X, formerly known as Twitter, after receiving a message asking them to reload their browser, but were unable to log in successfully.
Musk, who also owns Tesla and SpaceX, reacted furiously to the judge's order, calling Moraes an “evil dictator masquerading as a judge” and accusing him of “trying to destroy democracy in Brazil.”
“Freedom of expression is the foundation of democracy and an unelected pseudo-judge in Brazil is destroying it for political purposes,” the billionaire, who has increasingly aligned himself with right-wing politics, wrote in X.
The two have been locked in an ongoing, high-profile feud for months as Moraes leads a battle against disinformation in Brazil.
Musk has previously declared himself a “free speech absolutist” but since taking over the platform formerly known as Twitter in 2022, he has been accused of turning it into a megaphone for right-wing conspiracy theories.
He is an outspoken supporter of former US President Donald Trump's bid to reclaim the White House.
Moraes ordered the “immediate, complete and integral suspension of the operation” of X in the country, ordering the national communications agency to take “all necessary measures” to implement the order within 24 hours.
It threatened anyone using “technological subterfuges” to evade the block, such as a VPN, with a fine of $8,900.
The judge also ordered Google, Apple and internet providers to “introduce technological obstacles capable of preventing the use of application X” and access to the website, although he later retracted that order.
The social media platform has more than 22 million users in Brazil.
Musk shut down X's business operations in Brazil earlier this month, alleging that Moraes had threatened the company's previous legal representative with arrest to force compliance with “censorship orders.”
On Wednesday, Moraes told Musk he had 24 hours to find a new representative or face suspension.
Shortly after the deadline passed, X said in a statement that he expected Moraes to shut it down “simply because we would not comply with his illegal orders to censor his political opponents.”
