X is closing its operations in Brazil, but keeping the social media service available in the country for the time being, according to a post from its @GlobalAffairs account, which wrote:
“Last night, Alexandre de Moraes threatened our legal representative in Brazil with arrest if we do not comply with his censorship orders. He did so in a secret order, which we share here to expose his actions.
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.”
Then the post got increasingly political and told Brazilians that they have a choice to make:
“His actions are incompatible with democratic government. The people of Brazil have a choice to make – democracy, or Alexandre de Moraes.”
X published pictures of a document allegedly signed by Moraes which says a daily fine of 20,000 reais ($3,653) and an arrest decree would be imposed against Rachel Nova Conceicao, an X representative, if the platform did not fully comply with his orders.
Brazil's Supreme Court, where Moraes has a seat, told Reuters it would not speak on the matter and would not confirm nor deny the authenticity of the document shared by X.
Musk, in a post on X on Saturday, wrote, “The decision to close the X office in Brazil was difficult, but, if we had agreed to @alexandre’s (illegal) secret censorship and private information handover demands, there was no way we could explain our actions without being ashamed.”
This isn't Brazil's first scuffle with X:
- Earlier this year, Moraes ordered X to block certain accounts that had been accused of spreading fake news.
- Later, Elon Musk said he would reactivate the accounts and called Moraes' decisions “unconstitutional.”
- This caused Moraes to open an inquiry into Musk.
- Musk later reversed course and told Brazil's Supreme Court that X would comply with the legal rulings.