In a major setback, Elon Musk’s X told Brazil’s Supreme Court that it complied with orders to stop the spread of misinformation and asked the judge to lift a ban on the platform, according to a document seen by Reuters.
The billionaire has been fighting what he called “censorship” for more than five months in a dispute with a judge in one of X’s biggest and most desirable markets. The court banned Brazilians from accessing the platform at the end of August.
A court ruling on X’s return is still pending, but people close to Musk in Brazil believe the service could be restored within days.
Late Thursday, X said access to the site in Brazil was “crucial for a successful democracy” and that it respected the sovereignty of the countries in which it operates.
“We will continue to defend freedom of expression and due process through legal processes,” the company’s global affairs team added in a post on the platform.
Judge Alexandre de Moraes, who led a local crusade against alleged attacks on democracy and the political use of disinformation, banned the platform, formerly known as Twitter, after Musk closed X’s offices in Brazil.
The legal battle eventually affected another high-profile business under Musk’s control, satellite internet provider Starlink, whose de Moraes accounts were frozen, prompting Musk to label him a “dictator”.
The brawl in Brazil was just one of a series of recent confrontations between Musk, who sees himself as a champion of free speech, and governments, including Australia and the United Kingdom, that want to prevent the spread of misinformation online.
Brazil was X’s sixth largest market globally, with around 21.5 million users.
“Musk was afraid of losing market share, he also realized that this was a pointless battle and that Brazilians were not turning their backs on Judge Alexandre de Moraes as he expected,” said Thiago de Aragao, a senior researcher at the Center for Strategic Studies. and international studies in Washington.
In a last-ditch attempt to circumvent Moraes’ ban, X used cloud services offered by third parties, allowing Brazilians to access his platform despite the ban, but the attempt was short-lived, especially after Moraes threatened to impose heavy fines on the company.
Late last week, X moved in a more conciliatory direction, appointing local legal counsel as Moraes had demanded.
In a document sent to Brazil’s Supreme Court, the company controlled by Musk said it had blocked nine accounts under investigation in a hate speech and disinformation investigation.
“His withdrawal is very positive. Whether you agree with it or not, the law should be respected, not defied,” Rubens Barbosa, Brazil’s former ambassador to the United States, told Reuters.
According to two people familiar with Musk’s thinking, the billionaire will take a very different approach when X returns to Brazil, adding that he may still be combative but will likely try to follow the law. “They will fight in the courts from now on,” said one of the people.
X did not respond to a request for comment.
© Thomson Reuters 2024
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